Suddenly money 'fell from the sky' into my account, I want to return it but I'm afraid of fraud, what should I do?

A stranger suddenly transferred several million VND into my account. Then they kept texting and calling me asking me to return the money. I was worried that this might be a scam.

A young man in Hue, when he discovered that someone had mistakenly transferred more than 200 million VND into his account, went to the police station to report the incident - Photo: TAN PHUOC

A reader said he had heard many stories and also suddenly received several million VND in his account, then received a message asking him to return it. "Although I really want to return it, I am afraid that this could be an online scam. So what should I do?", the reader asked.

Lawyer Tran Hau - Da Nang City Bar Association, answers:

According to the provisions of Article 579 of the 2015 Civil Code on the obligation to return, a person who possesses or uses another person's property without legal basis must return it to the owner or subject with rights to that property.

If the owner or subject with rights to the property cannot be found, it must be handed over to the competent state agency.

In this case, you can report to the local police where you live.

In addition, according to Point c, Clause 2, Article 20 of Circular No. 17/2024/TT-NHNN, the account holder is obliged to refund or coordinate with the bank or foreign bank branch to refund the amounts that have been mistakenly or mistakenly credited to his/her payment account.

Lawyer Tran Hau, Da Nang City Bar Association

According to the law, if the recipient of a mistakenly transferred money intentionally fails to return it, he or she may be subject to administrative penalties. If the amount is large, this behavior may be subject to criminal prosecution.

Therefore, when you receive money transferred to the wrong account, you should immediately contact the bank where the account was opened to verify and handle the refund issue, or notify the local police agency to refund this amount.

In fact, there are some cases where scammers intentionally transfer money into other people's bank accounts to force them to lend money at high interest rates, or use tricks to instruct victims to perform operations and then take over their bank accounts.

Therefore, account holders who receive mistakenly transferred money need to be extremely careful to avoid falling into the scam trap. When encountering such a problem, you should verify the sender's information, the reason they know your account number, and save the transaction history.

It is best to contact the bank directly for instructions on how to make a refund in a transparent and clearly confirmed manner.

In particular, to avoid fraud, you should never arbitrarily refund or make money transfers following instructions from strangers via text messages or phone calls.

Thus, there are two ways to carry out the procedures for returning money received due to mistaken transfer. One is to contact the bank. The other is to report to the competent police agency of the place of residence to verify and return the money to the person who transferred the money by mistake. This will avoid possible legal risks and avoid being involved in fraudulent activities.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/bong-dung-tien-tu-tren-troi-roi-xuong-tai-khoan-muon-tra-lai-nhung-so-lua-dao-phai-lam-sao-20250304141317366.htm