What if out of the blue you get Rs.1 lakh into your account with no knowledge of who credited it? What if no one claimed that money for more than a month?
What would you do in this situation?
What if you transferred your friend's Rs.1 Lakh to some stranger inadvertently instead of transferring to that friend's mom and you didn't realize that for about one and a half months? What if that stranger has only Rs.50 left in his account by the time you realized your mistake and checked his account to get the money back?
What would you do in this situation?
Quite a situation, eh?
At times without realizing the cost of failure we make silly mistakes which could have been avoided by a few seconds of double checking. That's what I made when I missed to double check my friend's mom's ICICI account number before transferring Rs.1 Lakh. Incorrect one digit cost me stress, restlesness, agony and my sleep for two weeks.
Unfortunately my friend took more than a month to confirm that money did not reach his mom. With the help of a known branch manager when I checked that stranger's account, I was shocked to learn that he had only Rs.50 in his account. To add more fuel into the fire, I also learnt that that account is a salary account and that person's salary is just Rs.4000. BOOM.....!!!
With the help(?!) of police I have got Rs.75,000 back and a written statement from that stranger that I would get the remaining amount back by 30-Nov-07. But the pain that my friend, his mom and I have been through was tremendous.
That stranger is a 21 years old lower middle class person who is otherwise a good person, took his chance with this money. Bad luck though. This situation has cost him his job, his reputation and his credibility. I felt miserable about his situation.
Money is cruel and sadistic.
26 comments:
It surely is quite a situation that does not occur so often. In my opinion, all the three mistakes by different parties, though trivial, have collectively made the situation bizarre. To be honest, I am stuck with a weird feeling that I was indirectly involved in the overall picture.
But again, good lessons to be learnt from all the three parties involved. As you rightly said, at the end of the day, it's all to do with the money!
Seeni .. that is a royal mess. Think u were lucky to get the money back so soon.
Panam Pathum seiyum!!
I really pity that guy who lost his job. Panam Pathum Seiyum!
Online transfers have become integral part of life. This real life story has 3 imp lessons for everyone.
Track every Transaction to its closure!
Double Check!
Personel Ethics!
One Silly mistake has given Un-Necessary stress for multiple parties !?
Surprised about Police dept helping hand!
Why did he lose his job ?
I don't think he loses any credibility just because you are my friend :-). May be I will call him greedy. But who is not. If we find 100 $ on the road how many of us will track down the owner.
I am surprised that you are able to get that money back so soon. Especially I don't think there is any obligation by law to return that money. Just a moral obligation. So may be the police helped you out. Do you have some connections in police dept ? (or did you pay someone there ?).
I am surprised by the lack of privacy in Indian banking system. You are able to get his a/c balance and salary too. Someone else will probably be able to get your details.
kasu vishyathila careful machi :-)
siva,
100$ on road is fine! thats not a big deal.
lets say you got a anonymous credit to you bank account of $10000. what will you do?!
Probably I would give a call to bank to cross check!
why he lost his job, why he lost his credibility? why did police helped? I'll leave it to seeni to answer.
lack of privacy in indian banking system! thats true.
Online banking in India needs improvement. In US atleast they either check with zip code, account number and lastname or trial credit for verification before adding a payee.
Account number, Lastname & zip code match that should be a perfect filter condition to add one person as online payee. Indian Bank's should do that...
You are lucky enough to get your money back!
@ Venkat
All I can say is Murphy's law at it's best. :)
@ Senthil
Guess only 75% lucky so far. Lemme wait to confirm the remaining 25%. :)
@ Arasan
Police helping?! Dude that's an oxymoron.
Though I didn't pay anything police got a good sum from that guy by blackmailing.
@ Siva
Good that you raised some valid questions:
"Why did he lose his job ?"
I spoke to his company's zonal manager who took the decision to sack that guy. He justified that our guy's job nature is to deal with money from that company's customers. That manager raised a question what if our guy touches the company's money?!
"I don't think he loses any credibility just because you are my friend :-)"
That's why I said that he lost his credibility.
"Especially I don't think there is any obligation by law to return that money. Just a moral obligation."
You are more or less right. I would have to prove that I was not obliged to pay him that huge sum and he might have to prove why he got that large sum from me. Lots of hassle. When I first approached the police. They wanted me to give a proof that I transferred 1L from my account to his account on so and so date. Sick part was I couldnt get that proof from my icici online fund transfer history. Another sick part was when I approached the ICICI branch where that guy had the account for getting the proof, they refused to give. They advised me to go to the branch where I have my account. His branch is in Madurai. I was in Madurai that time. My branch is in Bangalore. When that madurai branch manager quoted the policy as a reason to refuse giving me the proof, I was so furious and used the F word and walked out.
"So may be the police helped you out. Do you have some connections in police dept ? (or did you pay someone there ?). "
Luckily my colleague's father has connections in higher officials of Police Department. That did help a lot. I did not pay anyone. But policemen threatened that 'stranger' guy that he would be locked up etc etc and collected some good sum. (not in front of me...this happened out of my sight).
"I am surprised by the lack of privacy in Indian banking system. You are able to get his a/c balance and salary too. Someone else will probably be able to get your details."
I have acquaintance with a branch manager in Chennai. Upon hearing my pathetic story and whining face he showed that customer details screen to me. He requested many times not to reveal his identity. Similarly my friend whose money I was supposed to transfer had a friend who is a manager in the bank also helped to get more details about that customer. hmmm...they helped us. There may be some people who might be misusing this as well. That's scary though.
"kasu vishyathila careful machi :-)
"
Yeah...learnt a good lesson. Will be careful for sure.
Earlier I believe ICICI used to show account holder name while transferring. Removed because of privacy. Understood, atleast they should have some nick name to account given by account holder. This way it helps to cross check while transferring.
Thank God seeni you are in India. Think what would have happened, if it is the 1L I transferred early this year. Sitting in US nothing can be done.
I am not a fan of online transfer, added one more proof for my belief.
@ Barani
You are right Barani. Luckily in my case that stranger was located just 450 kms away from me. What if I were at onsite?
One thing I must appreciate about your way of online transfer is - when you first transferred money to me, you did transfer only Rs.1000/- and then only you transferred a bulk amount. I should (have) adopt(ed) that style.
The Narration wad so good. I would say that this is a directed narration just like the lawyer arguing to make the decision on his favor.
There is no doubt that you suffer the loss of a huge amount. But, Analyze the situation logically - step by step:
1. You Transferred the amount. You typed the account number wrongly.Mistake 1.
2. The system will display the number again to confirm. You did not notice or re-validate the number. (when you are supposed to do). Mistake 2
3. The Bank software should b thinking of Human errors and must be having 2 or 3 levels of checks. (Account Number+Last Name+Zip Code). ICICI bank does not have it. Mistake 3.
4. When you transferred the amount, your friend has to be confirming that immediately. He did not confirm. Mistake 4.
5. When your friend did not confirm you should be bugging him to confim. You did not. (Atleast the bugging was not effective)Mistake 5.
6. When you found the issue, the ICICI managers gave you all private info. Mistake 6.
7. You induced the managers to violate the rules. Either by influence or by raising the feel of pity. You have bent the rules of the system. Mistake 7.
8. You have used the influence to get the Police. Mistake 8.
9. Police have behaved like 'Katta Panchayat' Villains. Mistake 9 and that is because of your influence.
10. The final mistake is that the guy has spent the money in his account. Mistake 10. This is ethically wrong. But ethics/rules of ethics would be different for a 'Infy' Manager and a person who earns only 4000 with Rs.50 in account.
So, there are 10 mistakes and only one person (of 10th mistake suffers). What about the rest of 9 mistakes?
@Sarangan, I wouldn't be too harsh. In my view, only one, 1 and 2 together as one, is Seeni's mistake. The last is that of the stranger's. Think of the whole scenario as a game between seeni and the stranger. The rest of the things you listed are the way Seeni played the game within its rules. (or its loopholes however you think). You can not call them his mistakes.
The only thing is in this game the dice was heavily loaded in Seeni's favor. (Infy mgr vs a guy with 40 rs in bank a/c). Imagine what happens if the other guy is a SP's son.
@Arasan, 10,000$ is too small to break our resolve. (atleast mine). What if the amount is something we have never seen. Say 1 million dollars. Then you call the bank. It says the transaction is correct. Then you wait for 15 days. No one claims it. You transfer it to India and buy a plot. Then a person comes to claim it. What happens then ?
@Seeni, the only thing I wouldn't have done - Call his office. You know his salary is 4000 rs. With no hope of recovering that from salary the only reason to call seems to be a form of revenge. Let me show you how much I can screw you sort of thing. To me that was out of the game.
@ Sarang
Be it 10 mistakes or 100 mistakes whose loss is heavier here? Is it mine or that guy's? I lost my money he spent my money. Were you at this situation same as mine, considering the # of mistakes that you made would you not pursue getting that money back? would just like that accept that loss? Would you not be so desperate to get that money back? (be it right approach or wrong approach).
@ Siva
It was a mid day of a working day (Friday) that's why I had to go to his office to meet this guy. If it were early in the morning or late in the evening I would have gone to his home. I first tried to establish contact thru his cell. Only when I did not get answer I had to take this visiting in person/contacting police route. His account balance and the way he withdrew that 1L (ATM withdrawal of 10K many times few days) were alarming. So I had to take the police help(!) as I dont want this guy to abscond and make the situation very complex.
By the way, what would you do if your bank debits Rs5000 from your account and you dont know the reason?
Read this blog few days back...could not write a comment immediately..I remember doing transactions using ICICI online facility.Those days, when u add a payee, ICICI webpage would cross verify the payee account no and would display the payee details..nowadays the feature is removed...for which you have become a prey now...better for you and for we people...talk to the same branch manager to raise a request to bring back the feature again...
1 Lakh is a huge amount...keyta neyrathula oru nalla neyram...
I would agree with you in everything machi. Just was curious Why you talked to his management.
Talk to the bank. Isn't that the only possible option ?
@ Siva
'Talk to his management' - was not a planned one machi. My plan was just to go to his office to catch him in person. As I went with police things didn't go as per my plan. Moreover that guy was not in the office that day. He had gone to Tirunelveli on deputaion(!). So police and I had to enquire about this guy with his colleagues there. His zonal manager was immediately updated about this matter by his colleagues. That zonal manager called me and empathized and offered help whatever was in his purview etc. (he offered tea as well). Long story machi. Bottomline was it happened without planning.
Got it. Not your mistake again. If Icici used the US system of requiring zip code, last name and a/c no. this could have been avoided :-)
ennatha solla. I can understand your frustration.
If I were in your position, I would be more deperate and pulled all possible strings and used all ways to get mu money back. There is no doubt.
But what I wanted to stress is that the 'Per description it appears you expect the person to give back the money willingly'. Even Arasan anna comments talk about 'Personal Ethics'.
I wanted to stress that if you are expecting personal ethics from the other person, then all the 9 mistakes which are done from our side will clearly indicate that we are not ethical. So, we should not expect 'Personal Ethics' from the Opponent unless we are ethical.
Actually, Ethics has no role to play in the real life and when it comes to money.....
Otherwise, there are no issues in your ways. I would not blame you even if you would have followed some ruthless ways to get your money back...
Saranga!
I neither supported any party in the whole transaction.
End of Day! All other party was happy except the guy who decided to take unethical path.
The most affected party would be that guy who lost his job. That�s were the personal ethics plays a key role and that�s the important moral of this real time story.
One fine day! If you are getting a lump some amount credited in your account, don�t take it for granted that it�s all yours.
If I am Player 1 � Usually I used to track transaction to its closure if multiple parties are involved. I will not wait for a month to figure out that�s something went wrong. Let�s say if I have done the same mistake, then I would have made player 2 responsible or at most made a 50:50 loss deal
If I am Player 2 � I would have tried all possible ways to get that money back.
If I am Player 3 � Definitely, I won�t be greedy enough to think its mine and use it, if the transaction is traceable. I don�t know what I will be doing if it�s not traceable : )
Put yourself in all three parties shoe, you will have a lesson to learn.
@ Sarang
Even if I expect that person to give the money back to me willingly what is wrong in it? That's fair and right expectation that anyone who lost the money would expect. Right?
"Ethics has no role to play in the real life and when it comes to money....." - I do not agree with you. Not sure what have you understood from the word ethics. Ethics in a simple term is good conduct. I think you & I are brought up with the basic good conducts by our parents (like don't steal, don't stab anyone etc). If you are not ethical in your personal life you will suffer in one way or the other.
@ Arasa good summarisation. :)
@ Arasa good summarisation. :)
Post a Comment