The other party refuses to accept the platform, and the operator does not care
Can I only admit it after charging the wrong mobile phone bill?
□ Sun Tianjiao, a trainee reporter of this newspaper
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
Tian Xiao (pseudonym), a resident of Chaoyang District, Beijing, was upset for nearly two weeks by a thousand-yuan phone bill.
It turned out that not long ago, Tian Xiao used the mobile phone recharge function on the mobile payment platform to charge his new mobile phone number 1,400 yuan, but because he was not familiar with the new number, he entered two numbers in the wrong place, and the final call was charged. Charged to someone else's phone number.
After running to many places and making numerous phone calls to no avail, Tian Xiao had no choice but to admit defeat.
Just like Tian Xiao, there are not a few people who choose to confess after charging the wrong call.
On some social media, a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" searched with the key word "charge the wrong phone bill", and it can be seen that there are many netizens who have this experience under the relevant entries.
Many netizens said that after they charged the wrong phone bill and failed to communicate with the other party's account owner, it was difficult to have other ways to protect their rights.
Another netizen said that the mobile phone number for call charge recharge is usually entered manually, and it is inevitable that there will be mistakes in the input, and the system will not have information verification and prompts like bank card transfers, and the subsequent discovery of the wrong number will not be able to withdraw the transaction through the platform.
Then, how to define the legal nature of charging wrong calls?
What should I do if the owner of the wrong number refuses to return it?
Should relevant entities such as platforms and operators take certain measures to deal with the difficulty of safeguarding rights by charging wrong calls?
Around these issues, the reporter launched an investigation and interview.
You can only communicate by yourself if you charge the wrong call
The other party refuses to sue for rights protection
After discovering that the wrong mobile phone number was charged, Tian Xiao immediately called the communication operator to which the mobile phone number belonged and asked the human customer service how to deal with it.
The customer service replied that she could only contact the other party privately to ask for the refund, but she received negative answers for Tian Xiao's later inquiries about "Can the system be refunded directly" and "Can the other party agree to the refund directly through the system?"
In desperation, Tian Xiao could only send text messages and call the wrong number owner successively, but within a week, the other party either turned off the phone or refused to answer.
Considering that 1,400 yuan is not a small amount, Tian Xiao contacted the operator again, hoping that he could contact the owner of the wrong number for negotiation, but was rejected on the grounds of "no right to operate".
Afterwards, Tian Xiao came to the police station near his residence, and asked the police if he could help him to get it back after charging the wrong call.
The reception policeman told Tian Xiao that this situation was not a public security incident or a criminal case, and the police station could only call the other party for negotiation.
However, when the police at the scene called for help, the other party was still turned off.
Tian Xiao thought of a lawsuit, but filing a lawsuit in the court requires clear information such as the complainant and his address, ID number, etc., and she only has a mobile phone number.
She went to consult the operator's customer service again and was told that only the judicial system or an entrusted lawyer can retrieve the customer's personal information.
Ms. Wang, a graduate student in Haidian District, Beijing, had the experience of being charged the wrong phone bill, but it was only a small amount of 50 yuan or 100 yuan.
When the other party called to explain the situation, she took the initiative to return the money.
However, she also admitted that if the amount is too large, she may still communicate with the other party and return it after reaching an amount acceptable to both parties. "Because there is no mandatory requirement for how much you must refund, the operator does not care."
The reporter contacted the three major communication operators, and they were all told that after charging the wrong call, they could only contact the other party's account owner for negotiation and have it returned. The operator has no right to make a direct refund.
A staff member of a telecommunications business hall told reporters that if it is charged offline through its system, and the wrong phone number is charged to someone else's mobile phone number, it can be recovered through the system.
If the phone bill is recharged through the mobile payment platform, on the one hand, the mobile operator cannot interfere with the platform data, and on the other hand, the platform usually recharges through the phone bill card, so once it is used, it cannot be refunded, and it can only be communicated privately with the owner of the wrong number.
The party with the wrong number is an unjust enrichment
Difficulties in safeguarding rights
How to define the legal nature of wrong charge?
Does the owner of the wrong number charged with the wrong call charge need to bear certain responsibility?
Meng Qiang, director of the Civil Code Research Center of the Law School of Beijing Institute of Technology, believes that one party charged the phone bill and accidentally entered the wrong number, and the party charged with the phone bill constituted an unjust enrichment in civil law.
He mentioned that the Civil Code stipulates the debt of unjust enrichment in the special chapter of the contract, that is, if the beneficiary has no legal basis to obtain improper benefits, the person who suffers the loss can request the beneficiary to return the benefits, and the beneficiary is responsible for the repayment. obligations.
But at the same time, according to the Civil Code, if the beneficiary does not know and should not know that the benefits obtained have no legal basis, and the benefits no longer exist, they shall not be obliged to return the benefits.
"Therefore, if the party charged for the call is completely unaware that the current call was charged by someone else, and the credit is used normally, then when the party charged for the call asks for it, the party charged for the call only needs to return the remaining part. That's enough. If the amount charged to the phone bill is relatively large and meets the standards for criminal filing, but the party charged with the phone bill refuses to return it, it may constitute a crime of embezzlement." Meng Qiang said.
Why can't the phone number operator directly perform the refund operation?
Meng Qiang analyzed that, in general, unless the call charge is recharged in the business hall and the number is entered incorrectly due to a staff error, the unjust enrichment relationship of charging the wrong call charge only exists between the party charging the call charge and the person being charged. Incoming call charges between one party.
In practice, if one party claims a debt of unjust enrichment to the other party, it often requires the other party's willingness to cooperate and return the dispute in order to resolve the dispute more smoothly. If the other party refuses to cooperate or cannot contact the other party, it can only be resolved through litigation.
"However, in order to meet the standard of prosecution in the Civil Procedure Law, there must be a clear defendant, and it is necessary to be able to provide specific and clear information such as the defendant's name, address, etc., and it is difficult for ordinary people to know the name of the party charged for the call. There is only one mobile phone number. If you ask the operator for the personal information of the party to be charged to the call, the operator is obliged to protect the user's privacy and personal information, and on the other hand, it is also worried that others will deliberately pretend to charge the wrong call. To obtain other people's personal information, so generally will not provide the specific personal information of the party charged into the call." Meng Qiang said.
Yue Fenshan, a lawyer from Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm, told reporters that in my country, the ownership of phone numbers belongs to the state. Operators apply to the state to obtain the right to use some numbering resources, and users then sign telecommunications service contracts with operators to obtain mobile phone numbers. The right of use enjoyed by the owner of the right of use in accordance with the law shall be protected by law.
If a user mistakenly recharges the call into another mobile phone number when recharging, because the operator is not the owner of the right to use the mobile phone number, in principle, it has no right to "revoke" the wrong number without the consent of the owner of the wrong number. or refund the money.
In practice, this is also the basis for the operator's claim that "it has no right to perform a direct refund operation without the consent of the owner of the wrong number".
The recharge process lacks prompt verification
Relevant entities need to improve services
It is worth noting that compared with other businesses such as transfers, mobile phone recharge services through mobile payment platforms do not have corresponding information verification or warning services.
On the two major mobile payment platforms, the reporter clicked on mobile phone recharge and recharged to different communication operator numbers respectively. It was found that one of the platforms would only prompt for verification when recharging a certain phone number for the first time, but not in other cases. There are hints; while another mobile payment platform has no hints at all.
When recharging, the personal information of the main part of the account will not be displayed to distinguish it.
In Yue Fenshan's view, the frequent occurrence of wrongly charged calls is related to the lack of information verification and prompting during platform transactions.
Although the main reason for wrongly charging the phone bill is due to the operator's own mistakes, for the payment platform, it can be checked by requiring the user to enter the recharge number twice, so as to minimize the risk of the user charging the wrong phone bill, but the actual The online payment platform lacks relevant preventive measures.
Meng Qiang suggested that, in order to reduce the difficulty in safeguarding rights after charging wrong calls, telecom operators and platforms that provide top-up services should fully perform their obligations of reminding and warning.
For example, the service of real-time or delayed arrival of recharge calls can be provided, and the recharger can cancel the recharge before the delayed arrival time.
For another example, it can be set that after the user enters the mobile phone number to be recharged, the interface will give a language or voice prompt, and broadcast the number repeatedly, so that the recharge service can be completed only after the user confirms it.
Yue Fenshan suggested that operators should provide SMS confirmation and prompt measures for the recharge operation of the conversation fee to reduce the risk of wrongly charging the call fee.
In addition, the operator can assist the two parties to communicate as much as possible and provide convenience for refunds. For example, if the owner of the wrong number agrees to refund, help the two parties to transfer the wrongly charged call charges between accounts, and reduce the refund of the wrong number owner. Resistance to cash, etc.
"Operators are obliged to protect users' personal information in accordance with the law, and shall not illegally provide their personal information to others without their consent. However, if the party charging the wrong call does need to resolve disputes through litigation, it is recommended that the operator give due consideration to requiring them to sign a confidentiality commitment. In the form of a book, etc., to provide the necessary information about the owner of the wrong phone number to him or his entrusted lawyer, so that he can complete the lawsuit." Yue Fenshan said.