Money appeared in my bank account

[AlexaShutUp]

Just under £3k has mysteriously appeared in our joint bank account. Dh knows nothing about it. Neither do I.

I will talk to the bank on Monday, but in the meantime, I'm speculating. Could this be something dodgy or a genuine mistake?

It's an Internet transfer from a bank in Swansea.

Just read the article, scary stuff.

I was told never to make the phone all from the same phone you have received the dodgy call from. Sometimes the scammers pretend to hang up, so when you then try and ring the real bank, they take the call, and pretend they’re the real bank.

There is a scam going around to do with this. Make sure you only phone the bank from numbers you get from their website and not through any texts or alerts you might receive.

If you Google it you might be able to get more information.

Good luck hope you sort it out.

I'm home now and have called the bank. They are looking into it.

Thanks for all of the helpful advice.

OP, is the sort code for the Swansea bank a branch of your bank or a sort code for a branch of a different bank?

If you aren't going to be home for a while, but your husband is home, can't he phone your bank and report suspicious activity?

@AlexaShutUp

I'm home now and have called the bank. They are looking into it.

Cross posted with your update. Glad you've notified them.

@Riverlee

Just read the article, scary stuff.

I was told never to make the phone all from the same phone you have received the dodgy call from. Sometimes the scammers pretend to hang up, so when you then try and ring the real bank, they take the call, and pretend they’re the real bank.

re-starting your phone will also disconnect.

take screenshot if possible of caller details for future reference.

e-starting your phone will also disconnect.

take screenshot if possible of caller details for future reference.

Good tips purplesequins.

Oh wow I’d find it very hard not to spend that 😂😂

@PerkingFaintly

I always call them back through their main number when I get an alert call from the fraud team (has happened a few times, always re a genuine payment of mine).

The bank has been fine about me doing this, they don't get shirty at all.

The other important thing is to call another number in between, to make sure the line is actually clear. There was a wheeze where the fraudsters stayed on the line, so when you redialed you'd still find yourself talking to them and their mates.

The bank fraud department exists to speak to customers about fraud, iit would be a bit funny if they were shirty about calls about possible frauds

@cauliflowersqueeze

Blimey. Someone somewhere will be having a heart attack wondering where their money has gone! The bank will sort this for you though. Lucky you’re honest.

Happened to us, I misread a digit and transferred £10,000 incorrectly when we were buying this house! Nationwide were great, once they'd calmed me down, luckily it had gone into a dormant account so they were able to retrieve it easily but she did say that had it been someone's account and the recipient decided to play hardball it could have been difficult to get back. Lucky for someone that you're honest.

Don't move it out of your account, even just moving it will be classed as fraud, about 10 years ago we had £290,000 put in our account by Barclays, it took them about a week to trace back what had happened...

@Riverlee

Just read the article, scary stuff.

I was told never to make the phone all from the same phone you have received the dodgy call from. Sometimes the scammers pretend to hang up, so when you then try and ring the real bank, they take the call, and pretend they’re the real bank.

You don't need to go to the trouble of finding a second phone. Ring your mum and if a man's answers with ”Hello, name of big bank, how can I help you” you have your answer

@JohnStonesMissus

Don't move it out of your account, even just moving it will be classed as fraud, about 10 years ago we had £290,000 put in our account by Barclays, it took them about a week to trace back what had happened...

That isn't true at all, if you have a genuine reason to think the money is yours that is a legitimate defence if you spend money sent to you in error

Is it the Santander error?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/santander-bank-error-gives-thousands-an-unexpected-christmas-bonus-dd5vt2g87

No, not Santander.

Ooops sorry that was me, transferred in error, will you ping it back please ? I'll pm you my bank details 😏

@ShrinkingViolet9

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/scammers-paid-1000-account-told-15853749

‘Scammers paid £1,000 into my account so I told my bank - but that’s just what they wanted me to do’

That headline is a bit misleading as it suggests that calling your bank isn't the right thing to do - the point of the article is that the person who got scammed then accepted an incoming scam phone call that was not from her bank, but from the scammers spoofing her bank's number. The OP still needs to call her bank!

Do you receive any benefits? My mum once received a four figure sum from the benefits office/DLA, think they were accrued.

No benefits!

Could be if a refund from something like DVLA? They're in Swansea no?

It’s a scam-someone dodgy did this to my MIL-taking out a loan and has accessed her contacts on her back list so had “put” the funds in her hairdressers account and then asked for them back…was a complete disaster and both her and her hairdressers accounts were frozen for a while whilst the bank sorted it out. Don’t touch it and don’t send it in to anyone else as you will be liable

Haven't paid anything to DVLA, so can't be a refund.

I think it must be either a mistake or a scam. Waiting to see what the bank says.

@AlexaShutUp

Can't really understand how the money could have been transferred in error, as you usually have to match the account number with the name when you set up a transfer. But we are definitely not expecting any payments...

Very easy

Two words

NOT CONCENTRATING!

Hope you find out what happened op. I respect the fact that you would pay the money back.

My DH (then bf) and I used to pay cash monthly from our accounts into a joint account held with a big bank (that like racing drivers) to pay our rent.

One day we got a letter saying we were being charged because our direct debt to our landlord had bounced (luckily our landlord hadn’t been bothered by this yet) and the bank were claiming we never paid it in the previous month.

We had to pay the rent again, which was probably most of our savings as we were both on min wage. While DH had to go down more than once and try and get them to investigate what happened.

Apparently the money had been paid to a woman behind DH in the queue at the bank.

For some reason they contacted the woman and asked her if she had paid this money into her own account. She lied and said yes she did. (Not really her problem that the bank was incompetent tbh but still)

Because DH was young and looked young for his age they tried loads to fob us off and call in case closed. Eventually they agreed to check the cctv which eventually showed the bank clerk doing half the transaction accidentally not putting it through and then putting it into the next person’s account. So one day they just paid us the amount they had lost with no fan fair. No idea if the woman kept her windfall or the bank got it back.

We closed our account with them soon after as it was quite a lot of stress to lose a months rent and we had no trust in them after that.