In recent years, WeChat chat, voice communication, and transfer payment have almost become important ways for people to communicate, consume, trade, and have economic exchanges in their daily lives. In the process of people's courts handling various civil disputes, WeChat electronic evidence is increasingly used.
Some people say that "the court only recognizes the 'transfer electronic voucher' applied on the platform after transferring money via WeChat";
Some people think that "screenshots are irrefutable proof" and pictures show the truth;
Some people think that "WeChat voice" cannot be faked and "you have to recognize what you said"...
In fact, these understandings have some misunderstandings or incompleteness. How to obtain evidence on WeChat? How effective are various forms of evidence? What are the adverse consequences of missing the original vector? Sun Ying, a reporter from the China Voice of China Radio and Television Station, interviewed a judge of the Financial Court.
WeChat’s “Transfer Electronic Voucher” is indeed highly reliable
WeChat's "electronic transfer voucher" function has been available for application for use about six or seven years ago. Recently, this function has become a hot search topic due to related topics, and has once again attracted widespread attention.
After the transfer is received by the other party, enter WeChat, click "Me", select "Services", click "Wallet", select "Bill", click on the "Transfer Record" that requires a certificate, and select "Apply for Transfer Electronic Voucher" in the lower left corner;
Accurately enter the other party's full real name on WeChat and scan their face for verification, and a PDF file with the official seal will be issued through the "WeChat Pay" official account within 24 hours.
In recent years, in lending disputes disclosed by courts in Liaoning, Heilongjiang and other places, the parties submitted to the court evidence obtained through the "application transfer electronic voucher" function of WeChat bills. Someone asked, is this the best evidence to use in loan disputes?
Fang Tianhao, assistant judge of the Beijing Financial Court, said that it really works. The "transfer electronic voucher" applied on the platform after a WeChat transfer is generated based on the original transaction data, stamped with the official electronic official seal, and contains the real-name information of both parties to the transaction, transfer time, precise amount, and remarks. The source of the data can be traced, the content cannot be tampered with, and can be verified. According to the relevant provisions of my country's Electronic Signature Law, electronic transfer vouchers that meet legal conditions are original data messages, which avoid the shortcomings of ordinary WeChat payment screenshots that can be edited, forged, and cropped. "Transfer electronic vouchers" are payment evidence with relatively high credibility and strong probative power.
It is valid as long as it meets authenticity, legality and relevance.
This feature of WeChat has been available for many years, but many WeChat users have not used it. Someone asked, if disputes arise after transfers, payments, and transactions are made through WeChat, will the court only recognize this "electronic transfer voucher"? The judge gave a negative answer.
Judge Geng Yuan of the Beijing Financial Court said that this evidence is useful, but it is not the only one. In practice, the complete original transfer screenshots submitted by the parties, the full screen recording of the bill without deletions, and the original mobile phone transaction records that can be verified in court can also be used as valid evidence as long as they meet the three statutory requirements of authenticity, legality, and relevance. If it can be corroborated with chat records, receipts, communication voices and other materials to form a complete chain of evidence, the court will still accept it.
"Screenshots are ironclad evidence" and "personal words" require supporting evidence.
According to legal regulations, WeChat chat screenshots, voice recordings, transfer records, etc. all fall into the category of statutory electronic data evidence, have the same legal status as documentary evidence and physical evidence, and can be used as effective evidence in civil litigation. However, electronic data is easy to tamper with, delete, and lose. Different forms of WeChat evidence have differences in authenticity, stability, and credibility. The court’s acceptance standards and proof effectiveness are also different.
Gao Yudi, assistant judge of the Beijing Financial Court, gave an example. For example, people always talk about "pictures and truth." Some parties think that "screenshots are ironclad evidence." In fact, individual screenshots of WeChat chats can be difficult to identify because the text, content, and conversations can be altered through image editing software. When submitted individually, the proof is relatively weak. Moreover, the original electronic evidence in the legal sense is the complete chat history in the original device such as mobile phone, tablet, etc. The screenshots are only copies and cannot be directly equivalent to the original. Only chat screenshots that are complete and coherent, without deletion or tampering, can show the context of the conversation, and can be verified by original equipment in court, combined with other supporting materials, can be adopted by the court in accordance with the law.
The oral agreement and factual communication content carried by WeChat voice records can often restore the true situation of the case, but this evidence cannot be used alone.
Geng Yuan said that WeChat voice evidence must be original voice that meets the requirements of legal recording, clear content, clear subject, and no editing or tampering, and has complete evidence effect. However, there are many shortcomings in voice evidence, such as blurry sound quality, difficulty in directly verifying identity, and insufficient persuasiveness of evidence alone. In trial practice, WeChat voice messages often need to be matched with chat transcripts, transfer vouchers, identity information and other evidence to form a chain of evidence before they can be accepted. At the same time, if the phonetic text translation converted by the parties themselves has not been verified in court and has no original phonetic support, it usually does not have the effect of independent evidence.
How to retain a certificate on WeChat? Judge's advice
How should WeChat electronic evidence be retained? The judge gave guidance. Gao Yudi reminds: The first thing is to fix the original carrier and retain the complete data.
Gao Yudi: The original carrier is the core basis for the court to verify the authenticity of the evidence. The core premise of all WeChat evidence is to retain the original mobile phone, device and complete WeChat data. Do not delete chat, voice, and transfer records, and do not easily clear the WeChat cache, uninstall and reinstall the software.
Fang Tianhao reminded us to pay attention to layered retention, give priority to obtaining official vouchers, and improve the evidence chain.
Fang Tianhao: For disputes involving fund transactions, priority should be given to applying for the generation of electronic transfer vouchers with real-name information and official seals in the WeChat payment backend, and saving and downloading them. At the same time, the complete bill screen recording and original transfer interface screenshots are retained simultaneously to achieve multiple fixations. Chat records can be used to prove the reason for the transaction, voice content can be used to support the agreement between the two parties, and transfer vouchers can be used to support the fact of fund delivery. This achieves closed-loop connection and mutual corroboration between evidence, which can effectively increase the probability of the evidence being accepted by the court.
Judge’s Tip:
When chatting and voice evidence collection, try to save the original audio file to avoid forwarding and secondary recording. Completely intercept the beginning and end of the conversation. Keep the chat time, avatar, nickname, WeChat ID and other identity indicators to ensure that the conversation context is coherent. Do not delete, splice, or modify the content at will.
Geng Yuan: When necessary, WeChat electronic evidence can be notarized. The entire process can be recorded under the witness of a notary, and the original appearance of the evidence can be solidified to completely show the process of opening WeChat, entering the chat interface, viewing transaction records, and playing voice. The screen recording file can be backed up separately to avoid tampering and questioning to the greatest extent, and give the evidence notarization effect.
