A real estate salesman finds himself in the middle of a banking nightmare after the money from the sale of his $325,000 investment property goes to the wrong account.
Phillip Larson, man from Queensland, discovered that the money from the sale of his property in Bundaberg, north of Brisbane, had not been transferred to his bank account.
The tradie waited three days for the money after his lawyer finalized the sale of the house.
A Queensland man was left on the hunt for his money after money from the sale of his investment property was wired to the wrong bank account by his lawyer
He discovered that his lawyer had transferred the money to the wrong bank account by omitting a single digit from the account number.
“She showed us the bank account number she transferred the money to and we saw it was wrong,” Mr Larson said. Nine news.
“At first we weren’t too worried because we thought the money would bounce back,” he said.
Mr Larson said he was concerned about the whereabouts of his money when it failed to show up in his account, which he shares with his wife.
“But when the attorney said the settlement transfer had gone through, we started to panic a little bit because that meant it had definitely gone somewhere,” he said.
De tradie, a customer of Suncorp Bank, rushed to his local bank branch after learning that his money had not appeared in his account a few days after his lawyer transferred the money.
Mr. Larson’s attorney transferred the money from the sale of the property through a platform called PEXA, a transfer system commonly used to transfer payments from property and property sales.
Les Vance, Chief Customer Officer at PEXA told Daily Mail Australia they resolved the issue after working to track down the money.
“Once we were made aware of the human error regarding the account information provided to PEXA, our team worked closely with all parties involved to ensure the best outcome for the affected customer,” said Mr. Vance.
“The issue was quickly acknowledged, verified and resolved by PEXA and the relevant banking institutions, with funds tracked down and recalled within 10 days of the request being made.”
Mr. Larson, who banks with Suncorp Bank, hurried to his local bank branch to inform them of the error.
The clerk at the bank confirmed that there had been a mistake and that the money was in another account.
Mr. Larson claimed that Suncorp Bank could not guarantee that the money would be returned to him.
A Suncorp Bank spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia the money was returned to Mr Larson once they were made aware of the error.
Executive General Manager of Everyday Banking at Suncorp Bank Nick Fernando told Daily Mail that the bank ensures that customers can double-check account information before making a payment.
“If a wire transfer is made by mistake, Suncorp Bank is working with other financial institutions to resolve it through a dispute resolution process,” said Mr. Fernando.
“It is important that a customer contacts their financial institution as soon as they become aware of a potential error in order to get this process started as quickly as possible.”
“Once we were informed, we took prompt action to get the money back,” she said.
The spokeswoman said the incorrect account number provided by the lawyer resulted in the money being transferred to someone else’s account.
Entering the wrong account number when making or receiving a payment can be costly as it will not prevent the money from going into someone else’s account unless the account number does not exist
Even if the wrong number was entered by the lawyer, it will not prevent the money from being sent to someone else’s account.
“There are times when, if a customer enters a wrong number… based on human error, it could potentially move to another account at a different bank,” the spokeswoman explained.
‘Sometimes (money) is refunded because the account number does not exist’.
According to the ePayments code which is administered by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, customers have the right to report erroneous internet payments.
They also have the right to recover money that was accidentally sent to someone else.
Users should also be warned by internet banking providers to verify that they have entered the correct account number before transferring money.