Phantom Money

November 23, 2005 1:47 PM

On Monday, after I had logged into to my online banking thing, I found a new bank account had been opened for me. It was a bit odd because I had not ordered this new type of account. The next day a fairly large five figure sum had been deposited into this new account...

So I called my bank manager and she told me it was a transfer from another bank. This transfer was not supposed to go to a new account under my name, but it did. And the transfer itself had been cancelled last week because of a perceived problem, apparently the money had not been sent, according to this external bank's records. So I guess this money is a phantom, an imaginary thing that I'm staring at, right now. It's both in my account and somewhere else, too. So, my question: Metafilter, how the hell could this happen? Has anything like this ever happened to anybody else?

posted by gsb to work & money (13 comments total)

http://www.man1bank0.com/
posted by autojack at 1:48 PM on November 23, 2005

Don't touch the money. The banks will (eventually, and maybe not for a long time) figure it out and make the money disappear.
posted by raedyn at 1:49 PM on November 23, 2005

but you knew that already, right?
posted by raedyn at 1:50 PM on November 23, 2005

autojack: that site used to be a 12 page story of what happened. I guess now he's doing the stage show that tells the story he wanted to keep the interest there, but it sucks for people (like me) that want to read the story and don't live anywhere near where he's touring.
posted by Lotto at 1:57 PM on November 23, 2005

raedyn, I've been told the money should disappear pretty soon. I asked them to send me a detailed letter explaining the transactions and what they did to rectify it, once it's all gone.
posted by gsb at 1:59 PM on November 23, 2005

The Internet Archive to the rescue.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 2:01 PM on November 23, 2005

Be sure to save that letter and keep it with your tax data for the year. The problem I would be on the lookout for is that all 5 digit and larger transactions have to be reported to the Treasury Department. In theory, this is to help locate and stop money launderers, criminals, tax evaders, and the like. In practice, I have never known anybody who ended up questioned by the IRS over such a transaction, but I would hate for it to happen.

This is all aside from how/why this account was ever opened, how/why it has your name (and I assume taxpayer ID) on it, and how/why this money ever ended up in the account. If it is "just a mistake," it's really at least 3 really big mistakes! If it were me, I would be looking into a new bank.
posted by ilsa at 2:50 PM on November 23, 2005

I asked them to send me a detailed letter explaining the transactions and what they did to rectify it, once it's all gone.

I'd make that request in writing, via certified mail. Don't worry about the money, they'll definitely take care of that -- but make damn sure that account is closed and that you get written confirmation.
posted by cribcage at 2:53 PM on November 23, 2005

It's possible that someone was using your account to launder money that was stolen elsewhere.

Here's a November 2, 2005 USA Today story about something similar:

When Rodriguez spotted a cybercrook attempting to transfer proceeds from his Ameritrade portfolio to a consumer account at Bank of America, he quickly called authorities ... A local detective identified the BofA account owner as Kevin Maguire, a 53-year-old corporate travel manager from Austin. ... Contacted by USA TODAY, Maguire said he "has no idea" what happened to his bank account. He says BofA informed him of the incident, but said little else. "They just told me this stuff happens," Maguire says.
Investigators say cyberthieves probably intended to use Maguire's compromised account to launder Rodriguez's cash. To misdirect authorities, thieves typically transfer funds a number of times culminating in a cash withdrawal.

As to how it happened - it's quite possible that your computer is compromised (read the story) and that someone else knows you logon.
posted by WestCoaster at 3:04 PM on November 23, 2005

Right, well, I've changed my login password as soon as I saw something strange going on.

The bank manager is adamant it was an error in the transfer from one external account to mine. It was supposed to go into another customer's account within the same bank and branch, but something went a little bit screwy and it ended up with me. I guess I'll have more information when it's all settled.
posted by gsb at 3:30 PM on November 23, 2005

It is hard to believe, but true, that in A.D. 2005 most inter-bank money transfers are handled with little slips of paper, and human beings handling those slips, reading them, interpreting them, and then crediting or debiting accounts. No joke.
posted by jellicle at 7:12 PM on November 23, 2005

Depending on what the supposed other person entered into his end of the transaction, and depending upon the other information gathered to execute the transaction, it's possible that the bank system just narrowed down the faulty information to you and then when the system tried to make sense of it all, you ended up with what you have now. For example, and this is not so extreme as a new account, but -- a coworker of mine had some fraudulent transactions (checks) post to his account, and what had happened is that the thief had checks with an account number that was one-off his. So, when the system tried to parse the transaction, its logic led it to my coworker's account, and then the checks from Mr. Fraud started clearing.

By the way, I work in banking. Most transfers are *not* done by people looking at slips of paper, unless you're banking at a really, really small bank. I could go into why, but I won't.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:27 PM on November 23, 2005

The chances of people managing your banking info with little scraps of paper is higher in the US than in Canada. The US, for being an economic superpower, has a hilariously backward banking system.
posted by optimuscrime at 7:16 PM on November 24, 2005