Sum of money appeared in account

[Moto Guzzi]

Hi guys, A substantial amount of money just appeared in my bank account. No idea where from :\ Anyone know what the protocol is to get it reversed? Going to call Standard Bank tomorrow to query the transaction.

The difference between knowledgeable staff and incompetence
Happened to me twice so far, in 1st case the bank contacted me(years ago, quickly resolved), in the 2nd case I contacted the institutitian which ignored me for all practical purposes, another institution was also involved as recepient and did not notice anything wrong or out of place at all. It took me some effort to get case settled and the two institutions lined up to each other(Find knowledgeable staff was the problem), took about 3 months. The 2nd case is what scares me of the digital "fully trusted" world today.

 

[Kornhub]

Seriously though, if you do get a random call claiming its an error and asking you to refund don’t do it! Know of a couple of instances where funds were paid into accounts and people did transfers only for the funds to never clear.

let the banks sort it out.

The amount of people that have tried this at our work.

 

[Dairyfarmer]

@Pho3nix

Deposited in your account by mistake. In which case the banks will only sort it out next week.

Or

"Deposited" into you account "by mistake" and you will be contacted by someone very frantically trying to get it back. There will be a sob story about how their job is on the line or their kids will go hungry. Don't fall for this. Let the bank sort it out next week. If they are being persistent and harassing you, tell then that your bank has frozen the funds and needs an affidavit from them to sort it out They must meet you at a police station to do said affidavit so that it can go to the bank on Tuesday.

The last thing you want to do is spend the money or move it. It is possible that the funds also have not cleared, especially if it is an inter bank transfer. This is what scammers rely on. You see the money in your account, but it has not cleared. Besides a scam, if it is a mistake, it is not your money. Using it would be theft. Just think how it would affect you if you made a mistake transferring money. Would you hope that the person receiving the money would do the right thing?

There are actually laws regarding finding property, but not sure how this relates to electronic transfers.

 

[Speedster]

@Pho3nix

Deposited in your account by mistake. In which case the banks will only sort it out next week.

Or

"Deposited" into you account "by mistake" and you will be contacted by someone very frantically trying to get it back. There will be a sob story about how their job is on the line or their kids will go hungry. Don't fall for this. Let the bank sort it out next week. If they are being persistent and harassing you, tell then that your bank has frozen the funds and needs an affidavit from them to sort it out They must meet you at a police station to do said affidavit so that it can go to the bank on Tuesday.

The last thing you want to do is spend the money or move it. It is possible that the funds also have not cleared, especially if it is an inter bank transfer. This is what scammers rely on. You see the money in your account, but it has not cleared. Besides a scam, if it is a mistake, it is not your money. Using it would be theft. Just think how it would affect you if you made a mistake transferring money. Would you hope that the person receiving the money would do the right thing?

There are actually laws regarding finding property, but not sure how this relates to electronic transfers.

To be fair, OP has clearly shown they want to return the money and not spend it.

 

[bwana]

Op, I'm assuming you've already transferred the money into your savings pocket or other interest bearing instrument so you can at last milk the interest while you can?

Might as well, granted it's probably only going to earn you R5 a day

Assuming it is a mistake and the money is real... is moving the money wise? What debts will be incurred if it's suddenly clawed back and it's not there?

I wonder if the bank will honour the interest earned?

Would you expect to profit off someone's mistake?

 

[Speedster]

Assuming it is a mistake and the money is real... is moving the money wise? What debts will be incurred if it's suddenly clawed back and it's not there?

Would you expect to profit off someone's mistake?

I can't see a problem with moving the funds to a separate account for safekeeping. If it happens to be an interest bearing account, then so be it. I guarantee you the bank won't be paying interest to the person who incorrectly deposited the funds.

 

[Pho3nix]

So called the bank, all they can do is a trace to find out where the money actually came from.
Can't return it and their advice rather is to call Capitec to sort it out. WTF

Funds are showing as available , so have seemingly cleared.

Will call Capitec later and see what they say. Moving the funds to another account in the interim.

Shall update on what happens from there.

 

[Speedster]

So called the bank, all they can do is a trace to find out where the money actually came from.
Can't return it and their advice rather is to call Capitec to sort it out. WTF

Funds are showing as available , so have seemingly cleared.

Will call Capitec later and see what they say. Moving the funds to another account in the interim.

Shall update on what happens from there.

Put it an interest bearing account and wait for the owner to find you. No need to go running around trying to fix someone else's mess.

 

[Pho3nix]

Put it an interest bearing account and wait for the owner to find you. No need to go running around trying to fix someone else's mess.

Agreed.

Half tempted to put it in my HL to help with the interest there.

 

[Speedster]

Agreed.

Half tempted to put it in my HL to help with the interest there.

That's actually a pretty good idea.

 

[chrisc]

Mine was years ago, in 1993 I think. R18000 into my Barclays Bank acc. In those days, you had an intelligent person at counter enquiries

She acknowledged it was unusual and suggested I not withdraw it and instead move it to an interest-bearing account.

At least 9 months later I had an angry call from someone else at the branch warning me that my cheque account was severely overdrawn. They had summarily debited my account not only with R18000 but fees and sundries too, at least R600 worth. I went to see this gent, who huffed and puffed when asked what the cause of the debit was. He called it a "Waste" account. I pretended to be clueless and asked him who authorised it. He did not know but agreed to waive most of the fees. By that time I had already earned R2800 interest so did not make a fuss and just transferred the money back

 

[WAslayer]

Legally, spending the money is theft, that the court has made clear..

I am just wondering, if at any point, you could have a legal claim to that money.. Like a statute of limitations type of thing, not sure what else to call it, and where you have recorded proof of all attempts made to contact all relevant parties to trace the owner of the money..

Or are you supposed to just keep it safe for 30 years, hoping the owner of the money comes knocking..

That leads me to the next question:

You put this money in an interest bearing account.. SARS comes knocking some time later and and ask about the source of funds.. would this not also fall under unjustified enrichment..?

 

[TheChamp]

Legally, spending the money is theft, that the court has made clear..

I am just wondering, if at any point, you could have a legal claim to that money.. Like a statute of limitations type of thing, not sure what else to call it, and where you have recorded proof of all attempts made to contact all relevant parties to trace the owner of the money..

Or are you supposed to just keep it safe for 30 years, hoping the owner of the money comes knocking..

That leads me to the next question:

You put this money in an interest bearing account.. SARS comes knocking some time later and and ask about the source of funds.. would this not also fall under unjustified enrichment..?

That's why it's always a good idea and a decent thing to try and sort it out, it doesn't matter who messed up. Calling the bank is not too much trouble. Sure you can let it go if you don't find joy but at least you would have done your bit to help.

We usually go out of our way to try and find the person if we found a lost wallet or purse because the first thing we do is put ourselves in the shoes of that person, sure it's a hassle but that's what you would hope for if you were the person who made the mistake.

 

[Pho3nix]

That's why it's always a good idea and a decent thing to try and sort it out, it doesn't matter who messed up. Calling the bank is not too much trouble.

We usually go out of our way to try and find the person if we found a lost wallet or purse because the first we do is put ourselves in the shoes of that person, sure it's a hassle but that's what you would hope for if you were the person who made the mistake.

True, for the moment all I can do is ask Standard Bank at my cost sadly to trace the account that sent the money.

Capitec says there isn't anything they can do unless the relevant party lodged a dispute

 

[WAslayer]

That's why it's always a good idea and a decent thing to try and sort it out, it doesn't matter who messed up. Calling the bank is not too much trouble.

We usually go out of our way to try and find the person if we found a lost wallet or purse because the first we do is put ourselves in the shoes of that person, sure it's a hassle but that's what you would hope for if you were the person who made the mistake.

Yeah, cool and I agree.. But that does not answer my question.. Say the person decided to write the money off as school fees, lesson learned, got burned and walked away, after speaking with their bank, recipient bank who were, for whatever reason, clueless to help..

Will you, in such a situation then ever be able to claim that money for yourself..? I mean, say you decided to leave the country, even financially, 20 years after this happened.. what are you supposed to then do with that money, if you still cannot legally claim it..?

 

[TheChamp]

True, for the moment all I can do is ask Standard Bank at my cost sadly to trace the account that sent the money.

Capitec says there isn't anything they can do unless the relevant party lodged a dispute

Cool, then sit back and enjoy your Easter weekend.

 

[azbob]

If you want you can send it to me and make it my problem.

 

[Speedster]

True, for the moment all I can do is ask Standard Bank at my cost sadly to trace the account that sent the money.

Capitec says there isn't anything they can do unless the relevant party lodged a dispute

The person will soon discover their money is misplaced and make a plan to get it back. I wouldn't spend my weekend trying to find them, they'll find you.

 

[TheChamp]

Yeah, cool and I agree.. But that does not answer my question.. Say the person decided to write the money off as school fees, lesson learned, got burned and walked away, after speaking with their bank, recipient bank who were, for whatever reason, clueless to help..

Will you, in such a situation then ever be able to claim that money for yourself..? I mean, say you decided to leave the country, even financially, 20 years after this happened.. what are you supposed to then do with that money, if you still cannot legally claim it..?

You have taken all reasonable steps for the money to be returned to the owner but did not succeed, You then spend the money with a clear conscience, no need to bother yourself about legally claiming it. You'll deal with the problem of the money being demanded back or SARS when it happens.

As others have said its not your burden to carry as long as you know what to do when they coming looking for the money, there is no way anyone can try to pin it as theft on you.

 

[gregmcc]

Just leave it there and score off the interest. Whatever you do, don't spend any of it as it should eventually sort itself out