An online fundraising activity has triggered a public outcry after it used the wrong personal information for its recipients - but the organizer says it is a technical fault.

Called “We share the same birthday," the charity donation spread over WeChat, China’s major social media platform on Saturday night.

The donations were said to collect the information of 366 children, each with a different birthday, who live in poverty in southwestern Yunnan Province. People can search for the one who shares the same birthday with themselves and donate one yuan (0.2 US dollars) to the child.

However, the public quickly became suspicious, as many images of children were found to be repeated with different names and under different birthdays. A student even appeared to be born on Feb 29, 2009, a date that doesn't exist. Those wrong profiles caused people to doubt the charity's authenticity.

The charity raised over 2.55 million yuan (390,000 US dollars) before it was shut down on Sunday.

The fundraising activity was launched by “0fenbei,” a charity organization that, as declared, is committed to helping people who live in poverty.

According to the organization, the children involved in the activity were all genuine people, documented by the national database, who live in poverty in Yunnan Province. The activity showed erroneous information because the program was accidentally sent out by the staff during the testing phase and quickly encountered technical problems. The donated money will be given in its entirety as living subsidies for 2,130 children in need in Zhenxiong County, Yunnan Province. 

However, a further query was put forward by its “partner,” the Narada Foundation, an authoritative private foundation approved and supervised by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China. As announced on the Narada Foundation’s official website on Sunday, it has never cooperated with “0fenbei,” and has never granted the organization with the legal use of its logo.

In response, the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs has launched an investigation into the case. 

As updated by an official from Social Organization Management Bureau of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Tuesday, “We share the same birthday” was suspected of breaching the charity law and is under further investigation.