Some time ago I read a news article about a person here in Finland who one day noticed that a rather large sum of money had been transferred to his bank account, from someone he didn't know. Rather than do what a normal rational person would, ie. try to find out what had happened or, at a very minimum, wait to see what would happen to that money, he immediately and quickly spent all that money on stuff, well aware that it was probably some kind of mistake.
Not very surprisingly, it was indeed a bank transfer mistakenly made to the wrong person, the police got involved and he was sued in order to get all that money back. (If he had simply waited to see what happened, the bank would have corrected the mistake, and obviously no repercussions would have happened to him. But since he went and spent all that money, he got in a huge amount of trouble with the law.)
This kind of story isn't actually unique. You can read this kind of things happening from time to time.
I have noticed that there is, in fact, a surprisingly widespread, and very strange, notion that many people have that if money gets wired to their bank accounts by accident, they get to keep that money. In my view no sane person could ever think that, yet it appears to be a surprisingly common notion.
I kid you not, but I have personally heard this notion from people who should definitely know better.
An even more idiotic notion, which that guy above clearly had, is that if you spend that money quickly, then you don't have to pay it back. (The, rather insane, idea perhaps being that as long as the money is in your account the mistake can still be reversed and you lose that money, but if you quickly spend it, then it can't be taken back, and you get to keep whatever you purchased.)
Who in their right mind would believe this? Do people honestly think they just get to keep money that's accidentally transferred to them? Do they honestly think that they can just go and spend it, with no repercussions of any kind? "Oh, you transferred a million to my account by accident? Well, too bad for you. Haha! It's mine now! Sucks being you!"
Not very surprisingly, it was indeed a bank transfer mistakenly made to the wrong person, the police got involved and he was sued in order to get all that money back. (If he had simply waited to see what happened, the bank would have corrected the mistake, and obviously no repercussions would have happened to him. But since he went and spent all that money, he got in a huge amount of trouble with the law.)
This kind of story isn't actually unique. You can read this kind of things happening from time to time.
I have noticed that there is, in fact, a surprisingly widespread, and very strange, notion that many people have that if money gets wired to their bank accounts by accident, they get to keep that money. In my view no sane person could ever think that, yet it appears to be a surprisingly common notion.
I kid you not, but I have personally heard this notion from people who should definitely know better.
An even more idiotic notion, which that guy above clearly had, is that if you spend that money quickly, then you don't have to pay it back. (The, rather insane, idea perhaps being that as long as the money is in your account the mistake can still be reversed and you lose that money, but if you quickly spend it, then it can't be taken back, and you get to keep whatever you purchased.)
Who in their right mind would believe this? Do people honestly think they just get to keep money that's accidentally transferred to them? Do they honestly think that they can just go and spend it, with no repercussions of any kind? "Oh, you transferred a million to my account by accident? Well, too bad for you. Haha! It's mine now! Sucks being you!"
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