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Don't withdraw money with a bank card you find, and contact the owner or hand to the police any phone or wallet you find; don't pocket it

  • Top value
  • Evidence A
  • Keeps you free
  • Free
  • Takes minutes
  • No willpower

In plain words

Keeping a found item for your own use, once the value reaches "a relatively large amount" and you refuse to hand it over, brings up to 2 years, and 2 to 5 years for a huge amount. Withdrawing money from an ATM with a found bank card is heavier, counted as fraudulent use of someone else's credit card: a relatively large amount brings up to 5 years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 CNY (2万到20万). For the withdrawal, the police open a case directly, and the owner doesn't have to sue.

Cost

Free, and it takes a few minutes. Call the owner, or take the item to the police station (派出所).

What you get

A person who finds something lost by someone else must return it to the owner, notify the owner promptly to claim it, or hand it to the public security or other departments. Keeping what someone left behind for your own use, when the value reaches "a relatively large amount" and you refuse to hand it over, is the crime of embezzlement (侵占罪), with up to 2 years. A huge amount brings 2 to 5 years. Using someone else's credit card that you found at an ATM is "fraudulent use of someone else's credit card." Where it amounts to a crime, it is handled as the crime of credit card fraud (信用卡诈骗罪): a relatively large amount brings up to 5 years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 CNY (2万到20万). A huge amount or other serious circumstances bring 5 to 10 years and a fine of 50,000 to 500,000 CNY (5万到50万) (China)

Notes

The crime of embezzlement is "handled only if the victim sues" (告诉的才处理), so the owner has to sue in court, and the police do not act on their own. But withdrawing money with a found card is different: the owner does not have to sue, and the police open a case directly. How much money "a relatively large amount" means is set by a judicial interpretation, which this section has not verified. After you hand an item to the relevant department, the owner has to pay storage costs when claiming it (Civil Code (民法典) Article 317).

Evidence grade
A : Specific numbers from meta-analyses, large cohorts or randomized trials; for law and policy, the statute or official text.
Sources
  1. 全国人大 (2020). 民法典（第三百一十四条）. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/fl/202006/t20200602_463888.shtml
  2. 全国人大 (2020). 刑法（根据刑法修正案（十一）修正，第一百九十六、二百七十条）. https://jtgl.beijing.gov.cn/jgj/jgxx/flfg/fl/11033925/index.html
  3. 最高人民检察院 (2008). 关于拾得他人信用卡并在自动柜员机（ATM 机）上使用的行为如何定性问题的批复. https://www.spp.gov.cn/spp/flfg/sfjs/201208/t20120830_47871.shtml

Translated from the Chinese original. Original book, section 9, tip 7. This section describes legal rules, mostly mainland China’s. It is general information, not legal advice; for your own case, talk to a lawyer. Content may be out of date and rules differ by place. When you actually deal with an agency, a doctor or a court, follow what local officials, doctors and lawyers tell you. Disclaimer