(Yicai Global) Aug. 14 -- China's internet giant Tencent Holdings will adopt real-name verification on its third-party payment platform TenPay to adhere to regulator's requests regarding recent blunders in money transfers.

Users of Tencent's social media platform WeChat have complained to consumer rights authorities in eastern Zhejiang province about misguided money transfers that could not be refunded, after which the Industry and Commerce Administration of Zhejiang Province has asked the tech firm to rectify its ID verification methods, state-backed The Paper reported.

One particular case has gained wide publicity on online forums. A man surnamed Huang transferred CNY80,000 (USD11,600) over WeChat to a wrong person, after which WeChat's customer service representative asked Mr. Huang to negotiate with the counterparty to return the money, and yet because Huang did not know the true identity of the receiver, the case could not be solved.

"WeChat is no longer purely a social media platform," a representative from the consumer rights bureau said. "WeChat Payment, as a financial service operator, should balance the relationship between customer privacy protection and securing property."

"When a similarly misdirected money transfer occurs, the customer service representative of WeChat Payment should try to assist the user in recovering the money and actively cooperate with the judicial authorities to disclose the true information about the counterparty, and should not use personal privacy protection as a universal reason to counter the reasonable appeal of the user," the representative added.

Editor: Emmi Laine