I was doing my routine work today when a text message popped up on my cell phone "80,000 Rs has been transferred to your account # xxxxxxxxx by account # xxxxxxxx". 4 similar text messages followed with much bigger payments and within a couple of minutes a sum of 2 million rupees was sitting in my bank account.
I was shocked as hell because I wasn't expecting any such payments. I logged onto my bank's website and checked my account balance, it confirmed these transactions.
I knew something fishy has happened and wasn't sure whether I should tell my mom / wife about this (they usually panic quickly). So I just got myself busy with my work as I was in office and was waiting for someone to contact me on this.
4 hours later, I received a call from my bank. The manager was on line, and he asked me where am I and when can I be available for a meeting. I told him that I'm in office and I'll be free at 7pm. Then he told me about these payments which were done accidentally and a refund is needed. Since Eid holidays are starting from tomorrow so we'll have to do this today at any cost. It wasn't possible for me to leave the office before 7pm so they said they will wait for me even after bank closing hours.
Then I got several calls from my bank. Long story short, they asked me to provide 3 blank cheques so they can use them to refund. I didn't had chequebook with me in my office so they were willing to send someone to my home and collect cheques. When I asked what they will do with my cheques without my signature on them? They said they can refund when they have cheques with them and I can visit them & do the signatures later.
I called my mom and told her about this, the bank representative reached my home, had my mom on call with me, received the cheques and returned. Half hour later I got text alerts that a couple of payments worth a million rupees each were done from my account to account xxxxxxxxxx.
When I reached the bank after my office time, entire bank staff along with manager were waiting for me even though the bank timings were over a couple of hours ago. They welcomed me as some celebrity, gave me all the details. Basically what happened was:
My name & fathers name were exactly same with the actual beneficiary, the bank branch of both of us is also same and on top of that the account numbers of both of us were exactly same except one digit e.g. if my account was 111113111, then his was 111118111
The sender was an old man who asked the cashier to fill the cheques for him, the cashier asked about the beneficiary details and the old man gave him the name as well as last 3 digits of beneficiary's account. Since both of these matched my details, cashier searched the details in his system and my account popped up on top.
Anyways, I have refunded the payment without any fuss. After refund bank manager told me that he got the call from actual beneficiary who is asking about my details and wants to meet me to thank. I told the manager to not to share my details with that old man or the actual beneficiary as I don't seek any reward or appreciation for this.
Bottom line, I became millionaire and then back to my normal self within half day..