A woman in Nanjing, China, says her bank account was frozen after she transferred money to a friend to cover hotel expenses for a trip, despite showing police a hotel booking and having the recipient explain the purpose of the payment.
The woman said two police officers came to her home after the transfer triggered an anti-fraud warning. She showed them the hotel reservation and called her friend in their presence to explain why she had sent the money.
Despite her cooperation, she said officers instructed her to go to a police station to “study anti-fraud knowledge.” She did not go because she had to work.
That evening, she discovered that her bank card had been frozen.
The woman described the incident in a Sept. 15 post on Chinese social media platform RedNote, and a prominent Chinese-language account on X, @whyyoutouzhele, has since reposted it, raising questions about how China’s increasingly broad anti-fraud measures are affecting ordinary financial transactions.
A screenshot of a China Construction Bank customer-service exchange posed by the woman shows that the account was frozen by the Nanjing Public Security Bureau, which is the municipal police department in China. The screenshot lists Sept. 17 as the scheduled date for the freeze to be lifted.
Related Stories
When the woman asked why her account had been frozen, the bank’s customer service told her that the freeze had been imposed by the police and that she would have to contact them directly to determine the specific reason.
However, she also said the friend who received the money, whose account was supposedly flagged as “risky,” had not received any contact from the police.
The Epoch Times cannot independently verify her claims.
Questions Over Police Requirement
The woman’s account has drawn particular attention because she said she had already provided an explanation for the transfer and supporting documentation before being told to report to the police station.
According to her account, officers linked the possibility of having her bank card frozen to whether she went to the station for anti-fraud instruction.
The episode has prompted online discussion among Chinese netizens over how far authorities can go in using anti-fraud warnings to intervene in routine financial transactions, and what recourse individuals have when their accounts are frozen.
Several individuals in China spoke to The Epoch Times regarding the matter on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.
A Nanjing resident surnamed Hui told the publication that she believes anti-fraud measures have increased the level of scrutiny ordinary people face over their financial transactions.
“Now when you make a transfer, they ask you to prove where the money came from and what you are transferring it for. If you transfer too much, they freeze your account and ask you to go to the bank to unfreeze it. If you transfer too little, they say you are testing the transfer and ask why you transferred so little,” she said.
Hui also questioned whether the measures were making people feel safer.
After China introduced real-name registration for mobile phone numbers, she said, she believed phone scams had become more sophisticated rather than disappearing.
“In the past, when you received a text saying, ‘You won a prize,’ they couldn’t even tell you your name. Now they can tell you your name, address, and occupation clearly,” she said.
A manager at the Shenzhen branch of China Merchants Bank, surnamed Jiang, told The Epoch Times that account freezes are often related to suspected fraud risks, but that many accounts are subsequently found to have no connection to fraud.
“Recently, the standards for freezing accounts have been relaxed. Large fund transfers are called abnormal accounts, and your account is automatically locked. Two large fund transfers in one day can also result in an account freeze, requiring the customer to come to the bank to have it unfrozen,” Jiang said.
He said banks were handling large numbers of customers seeking to have accounts or bank cards unfrozen.
“Every day, our bank has many customers coming to handle account or bank card unfreezing. We’re so busy that we can’t keep up. We asked the head office to relax the standards, and the response from above was that this is part of the job,” he said.
Legal Questions Over Freezing Procedures
China’s Anti-Telecom and Online Fraud Law provides for measures including warnings and interventions to prevent fraud, as well as the rapid freezing of funds suspected of being connected to fraudulent activity. The law also provides for conditions, procedures, and avenues for relief related to such measures.
However, in the Nanjing woman’s case, the bank was able to tell her that the police had frozen her account but could not provide the specific reason for the freeze.
A Chinese legal scholar surnamed Lu told The Epoch Times that the police should explain the legal basis for requiring the woman to report to a police station if, as she described, she had already shown officers the hotel reservation and contacted the recipient to explain the purpose of the transfer.
Lu said anti-fraud laws provide regime authorities with warning and intervention measures, but that a fraud alert alone should not automatically turn a requirement to report to a police station for instruction into an obligation for ordinary citizens.
“If not going results in your bank card being frozen, the person concerned is actually under pressure that is difficult to refuse,” he said.
Lu said individuals should be able to ask the officials who froze their accounts to explain the reason for the freeze, its legal basis, and the conditions for lifting it.
Ye Zilong contributed to this report.
