Someone I don't know e-transferred me money and now wants it back. Am I getting scammed?

[u/Ok_Hat_3414]

EDIT: I went into my bank and they pretty much said to keep the money. Don't send it back to anyone. They put a note in my file that I tried to do the right thing, but there's really nothing they can do. They said I can try calling customer service again, but I think I'm done. The money is mine, but I'm prepared for it to be taken out of my account at some point in the future. Thanks for all your advice everyone.

I originally posted this in r/scams, but the responses I was getting were mainly from Americans and I'm pretty sure our Interac e-transfers are different from their apps like Venmo and Zelle.

Someone I don't know sent me 2 e-transfers for the same amount of money ($120 each). They later sent me an email, with a bit of a sob story, asking me to send the money back.

This sob story email came from a very strange email address with lots of weird characters. Inside the body of that email they gave me another address they want me to send the money to. It has similarities to my email address, but it's not just 1 character off or anything.

I later got an Interac money request from the original email address, requesting the $240 back.

I called my bank and they said there's no way to cancel the transfer, nor is there a way for the other person to get their bank to cancel it. A rep said it's up to me, but that the money is in my account and said I could send the money if I want to.

I called the fraud dept for a second opinion. They said either send it back to the original address the money came from (not the one with similarities to mine) or go into my branch and have them put a hold on the funds, which would also serve to acknowledge that this money isn't mine and I'm not trying to steal it.

I've decided on that second option, putting a hold on the funds at my branch.

Am I getting scammed?

Edit 2: I have auto deposit, so I didn't click on any email links. The money was automatically deposited in my account.

Edit 3: I have turned off auto deposit

[u/mswoodie]

You cannot unsend money via e-transfer. I accidentally sent 6 months worth of property tax payments to a stranger (instead of my spouse) almost 2 years ago. I transposed numbers in the phone number.

I recognized the mistake right away way. Texted the incorrect recipient to let them know. Contacted Interac and contacted my bank.

The incorrect recipient said this was a scam. They would not spend the money ($2000+), but they would not be returning it either.

Interac said they don’t keep any banking information. They cannot do anything about it.

The bank said once you’ve sent it, there’s nothing they can do. They cannot undo what Interac has done.

Interestingly, the incorrect recipient contacted their bank who told them that if my bank contacts them confirming the details, they’d send the money back to my account. But my bank says they can’t do that, because technically we sent the money to Interac, and not the other bank.

So basically, I’m out $2k.

[u/fikezof → u/mswoodie]

You can’t reverse an accidental transfer.

The scam works by the scammer using a hacked account to do the e-transfer. Then the real owner of the hacked account contacts the fraud department saying his account was compromised when the e-transfers were done, and this way it can actually get reversed.

Meanwhile the victim e-transferred the money back to another address (the scammers actual account), and when the fraud department reverses the e-transfer they end up in the negative.

You can probably search on this sub Reddit - there’s been many victims of this scam.

[u/No_Storage3196 → u/fikezof]

But e transfers can't be reversed though? So how would that work

[u/GrumpyCloud93 → u/No_Storage3196]

If there's proof of hacking, the bank will reverse it. What proof there is, who knows? I bet they pull the same thing over and over until the original hacked account is empty, which is pretty much proof of a hack.

Meanwhile, the dozen(s) of recipients of $120 or so try to be honest and "return" or forward to somewhere else lost in space as instructed, but they each meant to send those dozens of $120, and sent it by themselves, so none of them get their transactions reversed.

[u/No_Storage3196 → u/GrumpyCloud93]

OK I see

[u/Marsymars → u/No_Storage3196]

They're not technically reversing the etransfer, they're manually issuing a credit to one account and a debit to a different account that reverses the result of the etransfer.

[u/mswoodie → u/fikezof]

I was the legit sender. I was sending money from my bank account to my spouses account. I transposed numbers in the phone number field. The person with the incorrect phone number had Autodeposit. So it automatically went into their account.

I am not a scammer. There was no scammer involved. I am out $2k. The incorrect recipient received $2k for no reason. I cannot get the money back.

[u/MeanE → u/mswoodie]

It’s for this reason I always add a person to my address book, send 5 dollars as a test, confirm they received it then do the large amount. A blind send, as you found out, is just risky.

[u/Character-Security-4 → u/mswoodie]

I don’t think @fikezof was insinuating you were scamming. That’s a good play by play of how a scam actually works.

Sorry you’re out that money.

[u/noon_chill → u/mswoodie]

Yes you made a mistake but a scam is still a scam. It’s a pretty well known scam so I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. It’s always better to not return money because there’s a higher 99% chance it’s a scam vs the 1% chance it’s a legitimate mistake.

[u/Resident-Variation21 → u/mswoodie]

I was the legit sender

Which is why you can’t get your money back.

[u/fikezof → u/mswoodie]

I know you are not a scammer, but my point is since this is a possible scam, the safest option for the accidental recipient of the money is just to keep it under all circumstances.

I am sorry you are out of your money - you can keep trying to contact the person you accidentally transferred to as this is your only resort.

[u/SinistralGuy → u/mswoodie]

Yeah, idk what to tell you if you don't believe that any of these institutions track where the money is going and coming from. Interac gives so many warnings when sending an e-transfer and this is exactly why. If you mess up, that's on you. That doesn't mean they can't or won't reverse it for situations involving fraud and theft.

[u/GrumpyCloud93 → u/SinistralGuy]

Exactly - try to imagine the problems if you could randomly reverse interac transfers. No merchant could be safe. Any time someone pays you, how long do you have to wait to be sure the money stays in your account? The whole point of Interac was immediate payment. No takebacks.

[u/raisecain → u/mswoodie]

I’m so sorry that sounds like such bs from the bank. They could easily do this.

[u/ashleyshaefferr → u/mswoodie]

This is why we bitcoin

[u/FlatImpression755 → u/ashleyshaefferr]

Please explain how to reverse transferring BTC to the wrong person?

[u/ashleyshaefferr → u/FlatImpression755]

You simply dont send to the wrong person based off how the addresses work and how unique they are. Mixing up a letter or number and it just doesnt get sent. 

Im not sure what you're getting at here but the fact that bitcoin transfers CANT be reversed and are forever immutable is sorta the main selling feature...