On Monday a Shanghai bank was instructed to compensate a customer after two thieves stole over 10,000 yuan (US$1,200) from his account by stealing information from his bankcard.

The city's No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled: "The Bank of Communications Shanghai Branch did not fulfill its duty of warning its customers of possible danger and protecting customers' property, therefore it should bear the loss."

The bank is considering an appeal.

The victim, Gu Jun, went to withdraw money from the bank on East Nanjing Road in May last year and found a white box asking him to swipe his card and enter his password to gain entrance to the ATM vestibule, according to Shi Tunbing, Gu's lawyer.

"Gu followed the instructions but could not get in and left," said Shi.

"When he went to withdraw money again on June 10 of that year, he found 10,068 yuan (US$1,200) missing and called the police."

The following August, the two thieves, Luo Gan and Chen Qiuzhe, were arrested by Shanghai police.

"Luo and Chen installed boxes outside banks which could read and copy bank card data and then made fake cards, with which they withdrew money from other ATMs," said Shi.

(China Daily December 21, 2004)