A Toronto man accidentally entered the wrong email address when transferring money to his sister via e-transfer around Christmas, resulting in the money being sent to someone with a very similar name. He has spent several months trying to get the money back.
“I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’” Tony De Simone said. This was also his first time using e-transfer. “Actually, I have vision problems; I’m blind in my right eye, so sometimes things like sending emails and typing are difficult for me.”
He said he owed his sister 1,600 Canadian dollars and was planning to pay her back around Christmas, so his sister gave him her email address. “I kept telling my sister I had made the transfer, and she would usually receive an email notification saying she had received the payment from the e-transfer,” De Simeone recalled. But the money never arrived, so he checked the email address he had entered and realized he had missed two numbers, resulting in the money being sent to the wrong email address. He contacted his credit union, which told him that the recipient had activated an auto-deposit, and the money had already gone directly into the recipient’s account.
“They told me I had transferred the money to the wrong person, and that since the money was already in my account, there was no way to get it back,” De Simeone said. In a statement to CTV News, Windsor Family Credit Union said, “We understand the distress this has caused our member and extend our sympathies to anyone who has suffered financial loss.”
The statement also indicated that the e-transfer was operated by De Simeone himself, who entered the recipient information and confirmed the transaction, as well as confirming that the funds would be directly deposited into his account via automatic deposit.
Once an e-transfer with automatic deposits is successfully activated, the funds cannot be withdrawn without the recipient’s consent. ”
Since the recipient is not a client of our institution, we do not have the authority to deduct the money from their account. We have made every reasonable effort through normal banking channels to try and recover this money,” the credit union stated. “We also remind all members to carefully verify the recipient’s information before confirming an e-transfer. We can also provide assistance and guidance at any time if needed while using online banking.”
When De Simeone contacted the person who had mistakenly received the money and explained that it was a misunderstanding, the person, fearing it was a scam, refused to return the money. De Simeone initially stated that losing the $1,600 CAD did indeed affect his financial situation.
Later, after CTV News contacted the person who had mistakenly received the money, the person said that he had been scammed before, but now confirmed that it was indeed a mistake, and finally agreed to return the 1,600 Canadian dollars to De Simeone.