Received a mistaken transfer of up to 3.5 billion VND but resolutely refused to return it

Mistakenly transferred 3.5 billion VND but was not returned by the other party

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About 3 months ago, on July 17, Ms. Cuong (Shanghai, China) rushed to the local police station to seek help. She said she had mistakenly transferred 1 million NDT (about 3.5 billion VND) of house deposit to the account of a person named Hua.

"After entering the account number, I saw that the recipient's surname was also Hua, which was the same as the seller's surname, so I quickly confirmed it without checking much. Unexpectedly, I entered a wrong number in the bank account number. The entire 1 million yuan was transferred to another person's account, not the seller's.

After discovering the mistake, I transferred a small amount of money with a message and phone number in the hope that they would contact me and return the money. However, I waited for almost a week without receiving a refund," the woman recounted.

Sharing more, Ms. Cuong said that she also asked her children to post this information on social networking sites in the hope that the person who mistakenly received the money would read it and contact her to return it. But luckily, that did not happen. She did not receive any information, and her bank account still had no notification of balance changes.

Impatient to get back the large sum of money, Ms. Cuong reported this information to the police to seek support. Upon receiving the statement, the police said that with the above solution, the person who received 1 million NDT not returning the money was extremely wise and completely correct.

The police officer said that, according to the correct procedure, after transferring the money by mistake, Ms. Cuong should contact the bank and report the incident. After having enough accurate information provided by the customer, the bank will conduct an investigation and find the person who received the money by mistake. From there, the bank will take measures to support the customer to get their money back. When the person who received the money by mistake has spent all the money and refuses to pay, the person who transferred the money can file a lawsuit in court.

After following the police procedures, Ms. Cuong met Mr. Hua at the bank. There, this person said that he was also very worried when receiving such a large amount of money. He said that he read the messages. However, he refused to return the money until the bank came to verify. After waiting for more than a week, he finally received a call from the bank inviting him to the headquarters to work. When he was sure that the account holder who had mistakenly transferred the money was Ms. Cuong, this man happily returned the entire amount without missing a single penny.

Similarly, in July 2024, a man surnamed Cai ran into a police station in Chongming District, Shanghai, China, sweating profusely and panicking. He said he had just mistakenly transferred 1 million yuan (equivalent to 3.5 billion VND) to a stranger. This was the amount he intended to transfer to his friend for a house deposit, but in a moment of carelessness, this disastrous mistake happened.

Mr. Thai explained: "Because my friend's last name is also Tu, I didn't look closely at the name, just assumed it was the correct account number and transferred the money."

After transferring the money, Mr. Thai's friend waited for a long time but still did not receive the money. At this time, Mr. Thai checked and realized that he had transferred the money to the wrong person. With no way to contact the recipient, he had to ask for help from the police.

Upon receiving the report, the Chongming District Police coordinated with the bank to investigate and contact a man surnamed Tu, the account holder to whom Mr. Thai had mistakenly transferred 3.5 billion. Mr. Tu was living in another province at the time, and suddenly received a phone call claiming to be from the police. Thinking he had been scammed, he hung up.

The next day, the police continued to contact and persuade Mr. Tu to return the money to Mr. Thai. Mr. Tu said that he had checked his account and there was indeed a strange amount of money transferred. However, there was no guarantee that the money really belonged to Mr. Thai and that the person calling him was really a police officer. Therefore, Mr. Tu stated that he would have to go to the local police station to verify first, then decide how to handle the money.

The police and Mr. Thai both agreed that what Mr. Tu said was reasonable. This was a huge amount of money and could not be handled hastily, so they decided to contact the local police station where Mr. Tu lived. The police there clearly explained the situation to Mr. Tu. Finally, he believed that someone had mistakenly transferred 1 million yuan (3.5 billion VND) into his account.

Thanks to the cooperation of the police in both places, Mr. Tu went to the bank to complete the procedures and returned all the money that was mistakenly transferred to Mr. Thai without asking for any additional compensation.

On July 18, when he saw that the money he had mistakenly transferred had returned to his account, Mr. Thai breathed a sigh of relief, because it was the money he had saved his whole life to buy a house. At the same time, Mr. Thai also repeatedly thanked the police and suggested that the police give Mr. Tu and those who assisted in the incident a certificate of merit.

Lessons to learn when receiving money transferred by mistake

Police said that when receiving a mistaken transfer of money, the most important thing people need to note is not to use the money received for personal expenses and only work with the bank to return the money to the person who transferred the money by mistake. Absolutely do not return money to strangers without verification and without a third party witness.

The recipient also needs to proactively contact the bank to report receiving the wrong money transfer or wait for a bank representative to contact them to work.

If you receive a phone call from the bank, you need to check if it is the bank's phone number. To be more sure, the account holder should still go to the bank to work directly.

In case the mistakenly transferred amount is of small value, the account holder can request the bank to provide a statement, compare it with the information received, and proceed to retransfer.

For large amounts of money, account holders should arrange time to go directly to a bank branch to verify or even contact the police to resolve the matter.

Source: https://giadinh.suckhoedoisong.vn/nhan-duoc-35-ty-dong-chuyen-khoan-nham-nhung-khong-tra-lai-canh-sat-vao-cuoc-dieu-tra-dua-ket-luan-bat-ngo-172241007100610226.htm