How to Get Your Money Back When You are Scammed or after a Wrong Bank Transfer

[Updated March 6, 2021] About 11% of all bank transfers using an Atm & mobile phone end up as a mistaken transfer to another user’s bank account. This means over 10 Million Dollars ($10,000,000) is sent by mistake to a wrong bank account by accident a day. This is one problem that millions of people face worldwide.

This mistake can leave you in a lifetime of debt if not rectified. Making a wrong bank transfer can be very troubling, but there’s hope you can get your money back. We’ve provided a guide to easily recovered money sent to the wrong account number.

money bank wrong transfer

This tip was shared by @Okwumbu_RuthAnn for Nairametrics

Visit Your Bank/ Recipient Bank:

The first thing you must do is reach your bank. How fast you do this largely determines the success of the rest of the process. If you can reach the recipient’s bank immediately, this might also work in your favor.  

Banks now have official e-mail addresses, WhatsApp lines, and Phone lines you can immediately call to have issues addressed. Since time is of the essence here, you might need to resort to calling them or getting to a physical branch (if you can).  

Gather All The Details

Before contacting the bank by either of these means, make sure to have all details written out: your account name and number, recipient’s account name and number, the amount involved, date and time of the transaction, and the reason you want to recall the funds.  

You have to be as explicit as possible in stating the reason for recalling the funds. If you mistakenly transferred into a wrong account, you made a transfer under duress, or you have been defrauded, state it clearly.  

As soon as this is done, your bank immediately gets the recipient’s bank to place a hold on the amount cited in the transaction. What this implies is that if the recipient has N30,000 in his account, and the amount under dispute is N10,000, the bank places a hold on N10,000 but allows him to withdraw other funds.  

Act Very Fast

You need to move as quickly as possible because the recipient could go on a spending spree upon receiving the alert of an unexpected “windfall.” However, if the money is already withdrawn, and the account is longer funded to the amount under contention, a hold will be placed on whatever amount is left, pending the resolution.  

Whether the account is funded or not, the recipient gets invited to the bank to resolve the issue. Here, two things could happen. 

The account holder could show up and authorize a reversal of the wrongful credit, as an upstanding citizen. On the other hand, they could choose to abandon the account.   

Take Note

The bank won’t just reverse the money because you claim someone defrauded you or you mistakenly sent money to a wrong account, but the recipient in the quote will have to verify your claim that the funds don’t belong to them.

Like most banks state, consent from the recipient has to be given to reverse the amount in dispute, unless it is an outright fraud case.  

If the recipient insists that it’s a valid transfer and refuses to give consent, the bank could maintain the hold on their account, making it impossible to spend the money. The problem, however, is that your money remains stuck in the account till the day they walk into the bank to authorize the reversal.  

In some cases, the bank may advise you to take the case to court and secure an injunction to get back the money or compel the recipient to show up. 

If it is a case of fraud, you might need to involve relevant law enforcement agencies. Also, the account is then added to the watchlist for subsequent transactions, or completely closed, depending on the gravity of the allegation.  

Final Warning

For the most part, mistakes like this will be due to human error and so the best way to avoid them in the future is simply to take extra care when you are entering the details for any payments you plan to make.

Double-check, even triple check, all of the details you enter to make absolutely sure they are correct.

One thing you could do if you are planning to send a large amount over is to send a few amounts beforehand and check that it reaches the intended recipient before you send over the full amount.

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15 thoughts on “How to Get Your Money Back When You are Scammed or after a Wrong Bank Transfer”

  1. I have same issue I transfer money from my rubbies bank to access bank account mistakenly and I report immediately thou the guy have remove 8k from the money and it’s only 25k left that is place on hold each day I contact rubbies the keep telling me that access back is yet to refund or give them sufficient feedback

    This is two month now

    Now the question is, is there no any mean I can get a call order and ask for the remainning 25k to recall back to my account without the owner account permission because the owner of the account has stop using the account since when the money is on hold and he didn’t visit the bank

    Reply
  2. I experienced something like this last month. Someone called me posing to be my wife’s Dad, that custom hijack his car and he needs 35,000 to take it back. I quickly sent him the money.
    I called my Wife’s dad if he saw the money and the man said “which money?, that he didn’t send anyone to request for money”. I tried the line of the guy that called me to send the money but it wasn’t going through.

    I went to court, then to the bank gave them all the details and the bank put his account on hold, that they need him to come to the bank. That the guy was only having 5k in his account.

    I am still waiting to hear from them.

    Reply
      • Hello sir I lost 150k
        February 4tj to ouy right scammers

        Is there any hope for me, I filled a police report to no avail…

        Is there anything I can do, these guys are professional scammers still scming people till date on Facebook

        Reply
        • Hello Josh,
          Sorry about about your loses… but what you should have done is the guides highlighted in this article. You can as well go ahead, follow the guide if you still have the transaction ID you sent the money to.

          Reply
  3. I can see that am not alone. I made a remitta payment to federal civil defense my this month. And the first transaction was unsuccessful but I was debited. So I did the payment again and it the second went through after that I did an additional three transactions. So I emailed access bank about the incident and they refunded my money after a month or so. But last month my account was freezed and I can’t withdraw the money inside. So I had to go to the bank and when I complained they were telling me that the transaction I made that may later went through after it was unsuccessful. So for me to have my account activated I have to pay the amount or get a refund from federal government. I was totally dumb funded cause I was wondering what the hell is happening. Please any advice on what I should do?

    Reply
  4. An acquaintance of mine was recently defrauded of 8000 naira (actually the only money in her account). She still has the contact of the scammer, but the Bank only advised advised her to stop transacting with that account. Please, sir if you know a way to at least check against this problem, kindly share the information. Thank you.

    Reply
  5. This is a very interesting read. There are way too many unsuspecting customers out there. If it were left to me, I’d entirely stop any bank transactions that could otherwise have been done in person. Be there yourself, these scammers are prowling your financial units. Thanks Yomiprof, it is really nice of you to write about this.

    Reply

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