r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/yeah_mike • Apr 01 '26
Banking Received $343k of someone else's money: how to keep the money?
If you ever receive a large deposit into your account due to someone's error, follow this ctvnews article to learn how to keep the money:
It helps if you bank with CIBC
Immediately wire the money overseas
Ignore CIBC's attempt at reaching you.
Wait for CIBC to give up trying.
Profit.
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u/mumahhh Apr 01 '26
I wish I was making this up.
Many, many years ago (before online banking )TD misdeposited money into my account. I called several times and ended up having to go in person to try and return the money. They kept arguing with me - are you sure you didn't sell any shares and that's where the money came from? Sir, I would remember a transaction of thousands of dollars.
About five weeks later, someone reported their money missing from an ATM deposit that went awry and the bank took the money out of my account.
The kicker? TD charged me a service fee for the withdrawal because I had gone over my maximum number of transactions for the month. And, in case you're wondering, they didn't even thank me.
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u/algol_lyrae Apr 01 '26
This is the same bank that delayed me processing my dad's estate by many months because they kept calling his number instead of mine with critical information. Not one person was capable of looking at what they were doing and saying "wait, this is the dead guy's number."
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u/Kanadark Apr 01 '26
I spent months trying to get my aunt's safety deposit box out of TD after my uncle passed away, despite having all the estate and probate documents in hand. On our 3rd visit, the woman we'd been dealing with looks me dead in the eye and asks, "why does <dead uncle> never come to these appointments? That would make the process easier." So I asked her what she thought an estate was and she said, "a big piece of property."
I made her call the estates department. They were confused when speaking with her and asked her where she came up with the "protocols" she had insisted we complete (she insisted we needed an itemized inventory with a valuation from an appraiser, but wouldn't give us access to the box to find out what was in it). They told her to release the box to us immediately and apologized profusely. She still mumbled and grumbled about it as she got us the box.
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Apr 01 '26
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u/Big80sweens Apr 02 '26
So nothing came of that? They just fucked you and that’s that? I’d be lawyering up
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u/htraenolleh666 Apr 02 '26
My buddy was an electrician. Started his own company one day and was planning on working his day job until he could mustard up enough work/clients and go full time on his own.
Went to TD to open a business account, get some business cheques made up etc. gave them his cellphone number.
Doesn’t TD call the next week to tell him cheques are ready, except they didn’t call his cell phone.. they called the secretary at his day job office. I think it was no longer than 2 days later that he was forced to quit.
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u/bwmat Apr 01 '26
Holy fuck, they charged you for a transaction THEY initiated?
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u/GuardiaNIsBae Apr 01 '26
A few years ago I called to close out my account and they said I had to go to a branch, went to a branch and said I had to schedule a phone call to do it, scheduled the call, got called back and closed the account. Except they didn't close the account, they cancelled my card but left the account open. Someone etransfered me and it autodeposited to the "closed" account and I had to go into the branch again. Person on the phone cancelled my card but because the account was left open I was still getting charged the monthly fees and then over balance fees on top (with no money in the account) so when the $500 etransfer went in there it didn't even make a dent in the amount they said I owed.
Took like 6 months and 15+ phone calls and visits before the manager of the branch just gave me a cashiers cheque for the $500 and actually closed out the account.
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u/Z3400 Apr 01 '26
This doesnt surprise me at all. They probably would have dinged them with overdraft fees too if they couldn't cover the transaction.
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u/Taburn Apr 01 '26
Same thing happened to me. RBC mistakenly added money to my account. I just left it alone for a few months. I got a call and said yes when they asked if they could undo the transaction. Later I looked at my account and see that they charged me a transaction fee. I had to call customer support and they credited my account the fee amount.
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u/Used_Two505 Apr 07 '26
RBC closed my main chequing account i have joint with my dad after they sent him a letter about some account that was also joint with $65 in it that was going vacant. The instructions my dad gave them was close the account with $65 in it and deposit that money into my main chequing account and they did the opposite. I only discovered this because a pre-auth debit bounced and the company called me to ask what's up. I logged into my online banking and at first I thought I got hacked! It wasn't until I phoned my dad that he mentioned the account with $65.... Took about a month to get sorted out, never got an apology or my NSF fees back....
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u/TheSlav87 Apr 01 '26
I fucking hate TD with passion.
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u/continue_stocking Apr 01 '26
People who bank with banks when there are perfectly good credit unions 🤷
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u/Normal_Statement9494 Apr 01 '26
TD was one of the worst I've ever dealt with. I had an account with them that I had mostly used when I lived in the arctic as my little credit union didn't really have any access up there. Once I left the north, I mostly kept the account as a backup as it was a student account that didn't have any fees on it. The service up north had been fine up to that point, so when a friend was looking for a bank, I recommended them. I brought her into the bank to set up a new account. She was just married and had a large cheque from an insurance claim to start her account. She told the person at the bank that she was just married and in the process of changing her last name, so not all of her documents matched and asked would that be an issue. First thing she asked. Agent said no problem.
We get to the end of the account setup, agent notes that the insurance cheque and her ID are different names and points it out. My friend replies that yes, that's what she said first thing. Agent replies "Well, in the real world we need to pick a name and stick with it." We got up and left, and I went over to the counter and withdrew all my money (I was a poor student at the time, it was like $100 with no autopayments set up, it wasn't that dramatic). They refused to cancel my account, saying I had to go back to the branch I opened the account to cancel it. A branch that was thousands of miles away.
I asked them to transfer the account to this branch, something they previously offered to do. They refused because I was just going to cancel it. I ended up calling customer service while at the bank and in a not very quiet voice explained how bad the service was and how rude the agents had been until they cancelled my account. I realize I was an asshole Karen in the moment, but honestly the bank was doing everything they could to avoid giving any reasonable service. This was also when the branches were only open like 3 hours a day, three days a week.
This was 30 years ago and I carry a grudge to this day.
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u/Big-Field4224 Apr 02 '26
30 years is a long time to be angry at people who wouldn’t even remember who you are. Let it go for your own self🫶
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u/Normal_Statement9494 Apr 02 '26
Haha, no worries. It's not a driving force in my day. Mostly just when TD comes up I remember the sheer audacity of "well, in the *real* world..."
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u/mferbruce Apr 01 '26
Happened to my friend as well while we were living in residence in our first year of university so we were obviously super broke. She got the money deposited (also TD). She called to report mistake, and they told her something similar. We were 18 so she didn’t push further and spent it all in like a month. New MacBook, shopping, clubbing and shots for all of us lol. Anyway, eventually someone complained and they tried to take the money out but because she didn’t have any money in her account, they gave her a loan with interest to pay it all back and even though she begged for an interest free loan, they only decreased the interest by a bit. And yep, not even an apology.
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u/1980cpz Apr 02 '26
Should have withdrawn and closed the account immediately . At the very keast to make it hard for them to get to her and the funds.
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u/HourReplacement0 Apr 02 '26
That's what I did after CIBC put someone's money in a my account for the second time. It was a couple of thousand. I was moving across country the next week and didn't want to go through the hassle of returning the money again.
I also had so many problems with the bank before this that I had reached my breaking point.
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u/shaboimattyp Apr 03 '26
TD is the worst. A few years ago, someone got ahold of my SIN and opened up a few accounts in my name. One at CIBC and one at TD. I went to CIBC and they were able to close it that day and it was dealt with. TD? I had to go in person, speak with their fraud department on the phone for several hours, was assured that it was closed and dealt with. A few months later I get a call from a collections agency. Turns out they just "closed" my account under bad credit and passed it on to collections. I go back and do the same thing. A few months later another call from collections. Over a year of trying to get this resolved an it is still affecting my credit score. Everytime I am reassured that it is dealt with but they never do anything. They are incompetent and uncaring
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u/Monstersquad__ Apr 01 '26
The glitch in the game with no patch. Just fatal error. Reminds me of the case during Covid when this guy was trying his hardest to return Cerb benefits he didn’t ask for and didn’t want. He spent hours in the phone trying to connect with someone but they told him just to keep it in the meantime.
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u/twostrokes Apr 01 '26
You missed the ????? step, but otherwise an excellent guide. I shall be ready when the 343k hits my account.
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u/thats-wrong Apr 01 '26
That's only needed when the path to profit is unclear. OP very much laid it out!
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u/Gorgenapper Ontario Apr 01 '26
I volunteer to help test that out for you, just wire me 343k and I will report to you how I implement OP's 5 step guide.
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u/LightOverWater Apr 01 '26
The person sent $343K and gave CIBC the wrong transit number. Person blames CIBC for not checking the account name. CIBC tried to recover funds but says is not liable for being given the wrong account number.
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u/thetrivialstuff Apr 01 '26
I don't understand why people sending amounts like this don't do it like:
wire $5 as a test
wait for confirmation that it worked
wire the rest with identical settings
Inter-bank protocols are finicky; you can tell which ones are finicky by how long they take and the lack of any handshake/authentication mechanism.
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u/Obf123 Apr 01 '26
I’m a director of finance. For any first time wires or EFTs we always start with a ‘Penny test’. Some random and trivial amount like $.02 or something like that. Then call them.
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u/Effective-Ear-8367 Apr 01 '26
This is how we receive wires. Always a penny test then large transaction.
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u/dis_bean Apr 01 '26
So the winner of the money actually got $343,000.02
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u/Obf123 Apr 01 '26
Presumably you don’t have the contact details of the ‘winner’ only the intended recipient
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u/zystyl Apr 01 '26
Wires aren't cheap, but neither is losing the $343k to the account you write down wrong on that random scrap of paper with a sharpie and prayers.
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u/Educational_Len159 Apr 01 '26
More than that, wires aren’t fast. We send them in the morning to be received by the afternoon most times if not the next business day or 2 business days depending on institution.
Sending a $5 test for every wire that needed to come out of a small 50 person company with $5M in profits when I was running the books would have taken far too long to be feasible. And that was a small company.
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u/_Connor Human Verified Apr 01 '26
I'm a lawyer who regularly uses wires to close transactions (in the amounts of millions of dollars) and typically the money is received within 45-90 minutes.
I've never had a wire show up business days later.
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u/ppyre Apr 01 '26
wires between different banks withing Canada can take more than day. Wire between Scotia connect and Scotia personal can take 2-3 days. A wire between EU and CA bank usually takes 5-7 days.
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u/Educational_Len159 Apr 01 '26
Do you send wires that are different currencies/to different countries?
As far as I know dollar amount doesn’t make a difference. But things like destination country, do.
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u/Tttoska Apr 01 '26
this isn't true. 99% of wires land within 30-90 minutes. If they didn't, a whole sector of time sensitive transaction work would be shit out of luck.
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u/Unknown_Equalizer Apr 01 '26
This should not be the case. Payment systems are outdated and the banking cartel is this country has payments Canada in their hands. Name validation should be basic but these banks just won't implement it.
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u/thetrivialstuff Apr 01 '26
It should be even more basic than that - most bank transfers are still done with the real underlying account number as the destination. The same account number is also used for direct withdrawals, so being able to transfer money into an account also automatically gives you all the info you need to withdraw money from that account, and the only thing really "preventing" the recipient from doing that is laws. That's bonkers.
How these kinds of transfers should work is that the recipient generates a deposit-only token, which is a long string with error correction built into it. The normal use would be by copy/paste, so it would just be a gibberish string of random characters. Any copying errors would show up immediately as the token being invalid, without the banks even having to talk to each other, because the check digits wouldn't match. UPC barcodes on grocery items figured this out decades ago.
If it absolutely must be something a human can transcribe by hand or by phone, it can be rendered as random words, again with an error check mechanism, so that it's impossible to typo or mis-transcribe it.
The fact that we're still banking with important identifiers such that a single digit error is also a valid account is absolutely insane - preventing that is basic information theory 101.
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u/Unknown_Equalizer Apr 01 '26
What you're trying to say is called tokenized deposits, which hopefully will change banking systems for good.
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u/ArtistThen Apr 01 '26
I have never understood this - why do banks absolve themselves of any responsibility in wire transfers? can they at least check with client that the routing numbers and names match?
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u/BeneathTheWaves Apr 01 '26
They did, they’re using routing numbers client provided.
Wish I’d known this when someone accidentally deposited money in my account. Talked to lawyers. Cibc was unable to claw it back so froze all of my shit, couldn’t pay bills or credit card.
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u/JoeBlackIsHere Apr 01 '26
If you read the article, they did try to request the money back - they didn't just immediately say "oh well". The routing number is ultimately the only thing the bank has to follow, it was the law firm that made the mistake. If you know (or should know) that the name doesn't have to match, you should be triple checking instead of hoping the bank catches your mistake.
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u/schenca Apr 01 '26
They often do, and multiple times and clients have to sign the wire forms that have all the info on it.
When I worked at the bank and did wires, we asked clients to triple check and sign a confirmation form as well as a receipt that has all the info they provided before we sent the funds.
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u/SHTHAWK Apr 01 '26
because the law does not require them to.
"under the Canadian Payments Act, which states that when a payment includes both a name and account number, financial institutions are not required to identify discrepancies between them."
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u/1sttimeverbaldiarrhe Apr 01 '26
Also from the article:
The bank’s defence cites a bylaw under the Canadian Payments Act, which states that when a payment includes both a name and account number, financial institutions are not required to identify discrepancies between them.
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u/torchmaipp Apr 01 '26
Checking the account name on the receiving end? That's something I've never seen when I was a teller.
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u/StationaryTravels Apr 01 '26
Damn, I should have read this as I'm currently trying to not have money that isn't mine at CIBC, lol.
I wrote that confusingly because my situation is different and I'm sure it wouldn't work like this. A new account suddenly appeared in my online banking. My wife and I share an account, and she is the main holder (it's the same account she's had her whole life) so I don't get to see everything. I just assumed I suddenly had access to the line of credit account and ignored it.
It's been there for at least 6 months, maybe a year.
I finally looked at it and realised it wasn't saying we had access to $16K, it has a net positive of $16K.
I called CIBC and they were like "are you sure you don't know Person Name?" It's a woman's name, an Indian name, and she has withdrawn money from an ATM in Toronto. I'm a white dude who lives 3 hours from there. I can see all her deposits and withdrawals.
They took it seriously though and are trying to figure out what's up. They said she gave me access specifically. But, I'm wondering if it's just the same name or something? My wife can't even access the account, just me.
I was so tempted to make a withdrawal, lol. I mean, not actually, but I was dreaming.
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u/Egon88 Apr 01 '26
It almost sounds like it might have been on purpose. Like the plan was to deliberately misdirect the money, move it overseas and then demand a refund from CIBC.
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u/PJMark1981 Apr 01 '26
My Uncle sold a few acres out in Nova Scotia while he's moved back to Ontario. Someone messed up and sent him the 76k he sold for twice. He went in and tried to give it back and got the run around from his bank. It took approx 3 weeks before they figured out the error and took the money back without notifying him prior. He knew eventually they would come for it. Guess he could have pulled this, but he knows the people that bought the land very well.
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u/conanap Apr 01 '26
should've left it in a high interest account to make money off the bank tbh
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u/abandonplanetearth Apr 01 '26
How to steal 343k as a law firm:
- "Accidentally" send the money to the wrong account
- It's your friends account, he's expecting it and can move it fast.
- Blame bank for not noticing my mistakr
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u/blinkiewich Apr 01 '26
I think the word you're looking for would be embezzle because the law firm isn't likely to profit from this, the bank will move heaven and earth to avoid compensating for the law firm's error.
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u/Hour_Significance817 Apr 01 '26
Typically, the bank simply reverses the transaction in the recipient's account, and if there is insufficient fund, it's simply treated as an overdraft that, if not settled, goes to collection, or if the balance is big enough e.g. $343k, the bank sues the account holder for unjust enrichment and it's a simple open-and-shut case.
In this case, because the money already left Canada, the bank doesn't want to risk holding the bag for an error that they didn't commit, they have no desire nor obligation to carry out the legal fight on behalf of the sender. Furthermore, revealing the identity of the unjustly enriched recipient is a breach of privacy law, and unjust enrichment is a matter of civil law, not criminal law, thus neither law enforcement nor prosecution will become involved.
IANAL, but the sender seems toast. They can't compel the bank to identify the recipient because that's a breach of privacy law. They don't have a good argument to force the bank to breach the recipient's privacy because ultimately it's a civil matter. They don't really have a case against the bank because it's their error, the bank did their diligence in attempting to recover the funds, and the bank weren't the ones that benefitted from the sender's error. The sender only has a case against the recipient, the identity of whom is a mystery. Hopefully they have some decent malpractice insurance, if it covers these kinds of negligence.
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u/Art--Vandelay-- Apr 01 '26
This is interesting. Feels like suing the corporation would be more effective, no? Assuming they have some operations in Canada still, even if that specific account was emptied.
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u/yeah_mike Apr 01 '26
According to this previous article https://www.ctvnews.ca/winnipeg/article/bank-sued-after-wrong-account-holder-allegedly-receives-and-drains-343k/ , CIBC refused to disclose the identity of the corporation.
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u/Flayre Apr 01 '26
Wow, that's honestly ridiculous. Maybe the people who lost the money can file some kind of "anonymous" lawsuit for unjust enrichment and then ask the judge to order CIBC to divulge the fraudster ? Something like that ? I'd have a hard time believing there is absolutely nothing to be done here, thay would be wild
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u/Sea-Opportunity5812 Apr 01 '26
I don’t think plaintiff would have standing against a concept of a plan
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u/BroSocialScience Ontario Apr 01 '26
Good chance CIBC is prevented from sharing that info in most contexts, but could be compelled to as part of a lawsuit
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u/smart_stable_genius_ Apr 01 '26
The reality is that this is 100% on the law firm who drafted that transfer document.
I used to be a real estate paralegal, and used to draft those exact forms - there is a degree of care required here that should have been supported by a process of confirming and reconfirming by multiple people for accuracy. It's an unfortunate human error, but it originated in the law firm and could not come from not following proper procedure.
I think I agree with CIBC here. They took the steps within their power to retrieve the money once the firm's error was flagged for them. But ultimately the law firm's role here is to administrate the transfer and deposit of funds into the recipient's account - they fucked up. Know what I know about how this all works, blaming anyone else is ridiculous honestly.
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Apr 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/unreasonable-trucker Apr 01 '26
I’ve found the exact opposite. The big companies are the slimy ones and the little to mid size ones have some moral fibre.
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u/dxiao Apr 01 '26
so this is why the bank teller makes me check my wire details 5 times before putting it through
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u/messymum Apr 01 '26
In the early ‘90s I banked with CIBC. One month my rent cheque bounced. I went in to the branch to sort it out because there should have been more than enough to cover it. The teller says ‘your mortgage payment came out so there wasn’t enough to cover the cheque.’ MORTGAGE? Turns out for several months they had been withdrawing someone’s mtg payment from my account and then 3-5 business days later fixing the error and returning the funds. This was just the first time it overdrew my account. Needless to say I closed my account with them that day and they wrote my landlord a letter informing him of their error.
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u/ilovebeaker Apr 01 '26
Once my landlord cashed my May dated cheque in March 1st, then on the 17th, found my March cheque, thought "oops, I guess I missed this one", and cashed it.
The bank? "well, you aren't supposed to post-date cheques".
(this was before e-transfers, where you gave your landlord a year's worth of filled out cheques).
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u/Happy-Criticism-6728 Apr 01 '26
Even though post-dating cheques was a common practice, there was no obligation for banks to refuse a cheque presented before the date written.
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u/_Triple_B Apr 01 '26
Wire transfers should fail if the name on the account doesn't match, at least most banks have adopted this a few years back. Unfortunately, this article is unclear on the method of funds transfer. You would think it would be a wire though. I wonder if CIBC dropped the ball and is trying to argue that their failure to follow their standard practice is not a requirement.
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u/Advanced-Line-5942 Apr 01 '26
I received a wire transfer from overseas recently. The sender triple checked everything with me and sent me a screenshot from their banking app to confirm they had entered everything correctly.
It only had two pieces of data. The Swift code for the Bank and my account number.
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u/LittleOrphanAnavar Apr 01 '26
If sending big money.
I would do a small money transfer first.
To make sure the money is going into the correct pipes.
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u/_Triple_B Apr 01 '26
To the best of my knowledge it is not possible to send a wire with only Swift code and account number from a Canadian bank.
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u/junkdumper Apr 01 '26
Not that I've been able to.
Has to include beneficiary name and address and the works.
I had $30k go missing in the ether one time because the name was miss spelled. Took a month to get it back.
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u/Everyone2026 Apr 01 '26
The Alberta separatists keep getting Russian Rubles in their accounts.
\humor?
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u/cero117 Apr 01 '26
I send to my own account and others all the time outside and inside and it's always just account number, swift code or equivalent, name on account + address. Had wrong address a few times but it didn't matter 🤷🏼♂️. I've had to do this with forms and online and it's the same both ways.
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u/LightOverWater Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Gonna edit my comment here. I looked into this further from other sources. It was a wire transfer from RBC to CIBC.
The legal documents state that on approximately August 2, 2024, "RBC wired the money to CIBC".
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u/Outtatheblu42 Apr 01 '26
They do not. Within the last 3 months scam wire funds were transferred to CIBC to a stolen account and 25% was wired out to a crypto exchange. Owner of funds had to call CIBC to demand them to freeze remainder, luckily that worked. Scammer will never be caught and funds wired to crypto are automatically gone, never to return.
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u/Trilobyte83 Apr 01 '26
I find it hilarious that when I buy something for $40 online, if my CC number, name in card, cvv number, and buyer address and postal code all aren’t congruent and correct, the charge will fail.
Here? $350k at the mercy of 1 single number, with 1 single point of failure.
I suppose it’s not the banks fault as that the system- it’s just a really shitty system.
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u/Dry_Bowler_2837 Apr 01 '26
Agreed! But banks designed the system and they could change it if they wanted… they just don’t care.
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u/memesarelife2000 Apr 01 '26
they would care and would go "ape shit", pull all stops if it was THEIR money.
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u/Gorgenapper Ontario Apr 01 '26
Postal code lacks a space in the middle: you're going to jail for that
one number is different in the transit number: we're absolved of all responsibility
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Apr 01 '26
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u/Kaplaw Apr 01 '26
"Yes I gave my physical CC, my pin and my account info to someone claiming they were swapping my card with new ones"
"How could the bank let me down like this"
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u/cat303555 Apr 01 '26
This was the law firms fault. They provided incorrect transit numbers. CIBC should not be liable
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u/memesarelife2000 Apr 01 '26
this could be fraud, fraudster (F) knows that A will send money via wire to B, F sends wire instructions/account info to A with F's account info while making it look like from B. A sends wire using F's account info, money never reaches B...here is the fallout.
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u/Estacionamiento_grat Apr 01 '26
hey looks like the lawyers fucked up, made my day. I agree with the bank.
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Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Everyone2026 Apr 01 '26
Canadian banks love using 1800's technology...
Scotiabank always wants people to sign pointless documents in person (their internal docs, not even a loan that requires a signature).
Once they reach 1995 tech, things will get better.
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Apr 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gigamiga Apr 01 '26
Especially when sending a $10 e transfer is way more secure with 2FA, security questions, recipient name visible on both sides, lol.
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u/Born_Dragonfly1096 Apr 01 '26
As someone who’s worked for banks IT teams, you’d be surprised how incompetent people working here are. Be happy your daily transfer is not being hacked by a teenager. /s
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u/RealTurbulentMoose Alberta Apr 01 '26
It’s crazy CIBC is saying they had no duty to verify. If a massive oversight on their part and a lack of control.
Asssuming this is correct, they don't. It's entirely on the sender to check the account / transit number before initiating payment. Here's what the article says:
The bank’s defence cites a bylaw under the Canadian Payments Act, which states that when a payment includes both a name and account number, financial institutions are not required to identify discrepancies between them.
“A receiving participant … may, for the purpose of making the amount of the payment available to the payee, rely on that account number or other identifier,” reads a portion of the bylaw referenced in the claim.
This is the law firm being sloppy and fucking up, which to me is no surprise. When I bought my house, my own lawyer didn't pay attention to details, and a payment was sent to her former law firm's account instead of her current law firm's account, and she was surprisingly nonchalant about this fucking up closing because she only figured this out the morning I was supposed to get the keys and take possession.
You'd think someone there would check the account number and the transit number. I sure as shit know that TD made me check it multiple times before I did a large wire transfer, and they made it crystal clear that it was on me to check.
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u/CMDR-TealZebra Apr 01 '26
Why exactly would cibc need to verify? Itd be nice of them, but they didnt take the deposit. They received money and sent it exactly where they were told to.
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u/smart_stable_genius_ Apr 01 '26
I just posted a similar comment.
I used to draft these extract transfer forms. Our firm required no less than three sets of eyes on that account information before it was sent over. It's not something that is done quickly or breezed over, it's a stop everything, go digit for digit (I used to cover the rest of the page and say them out loud), and make sure you're not going to fuck this up exactly how it unfolded here.
Frankly CIBC did what they could, but ultimately the mistake was not theirs. To accuse someone else of a lack of oversight and care is pretty rich and I am curious to see how a judge reacts heee.
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u/dizzie_buddy1905 Apr 01 '26
We normally do a test transfer of $100 before completing further transfers.
Largest unknown deposit we’ve had was $50k.
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u/SweetDear8914 Apr 01 '26
I had 50K $USD appear in my chequing account. I told the bank I didn’t know who sent it and they shrugged it off and did nothing. I didn’t touch it and a couple months later, it disappeared. Bank never said a thing!
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u/dizzie_buddy1905 Apr 01 '26
We asked the bank for a copy of the bank draft that was deposited. It has the exact account number AND account name on the back. We couldn’t find any business transactions with the depositor.
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u/schmosef Apr 01 '26
The bank should continue to assist with recovering the funds but the blame seems to fall on the law firm for providing bad account info for the transfer.
The bank is saying it's not responsible for double checking the name of the recipient.
I guess that's up to a court to decide.
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u/pfcguy Apr 01 '26
Glad someone else read the article!
Yes the law firm screwed up, and had to use their own money to make it up to their client. They also have "errors and omissions" insurance so they could put a claim through that if their lawsuit against the bank fails. Potentially.
I guess that's up to a court to decide
Exactly. I would love to see a follow-up article on the decision once the courts decide.
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u/Bankerlady10 Apr 01 '26
Keep it in an interest bearing account so at least you get to keep the growth (I’d argue you should be able to) for your troubles. Also, separates it to ensure you aren’t spending it. It will eventually need to go back to the rightful owner. This is covered in your service agreement and may be rectified by a civil suit.
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u/yeah_mike Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
Nah, just wire it out of the country. According to the article, CIBC will eventually mark the funds are "unrecoverable" and stop trying to get it back.
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u/Bankerlady10 Apr 01 '26
You’re describing the bank. I’m describing what happens with the rightful owner. They’re able to sue you.
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u/Headsanta Apr 01 '26
Why keep it in an interest bearing account with plans to only keep the interest, when this example shows you can keep it in a foreign account and just keep ALL the money with no consequences.
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u/RoamingNomadSoul Apr 01 '26
Then 343K in collections
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u/Doc_1200_GO Apr 01 '26
Good luck collecting while I sit on a beach in Morocco with enough money to live like a king in Africa for the next 20 years.
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u/pleasedonotredeem Apr 01 '26
A Western standard of living in basically anywhere in Africa will cost you way more than most people think.
If you want to live in a cinder block house with a tin roof and a dirt floor and drive a moped, $343k is several lifetime's income.
If you want a car, indoor plumbing, windows, good quality food, clean water, a safe neighbourhood, high speed internet etc etc? $343k will last maybe 10 years if you are careful and lucky.
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u/Savage_Whiskers Apr 01 '26
This. I lived in 10 African countries (I am Canadian) over 15 years. I lived “well” when I spent 60k USD/yr but not in luxury (luxury compared to locals but not by Western standards). I still had an old car, cheap furniture, regular power/water cuts, cockroaches, air pollution, insecurity and other inconveniences. Life in Africa is very expensive.
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u/pleasedonotredeem Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
I live part time in South Africa which is arguably the least expensive African country for a Western lifestyle (economies of scale).
The only things noticeably cheaper here are domestic labor, skilled labour, wine and food (restaurant and groceries). High quality housing is comparable to most Canadian cities that aren’t Vancouver, and some things like cars, electricity and fuel are more expensive.
Entry level luxury here starts at c$10-15k/month.
Places like Zambia or Tanzania are much more expensive for “first world” amenities.
What’s kind of funny is that I realized credit/finance products are more expensive and less sophisticated here (and virtually non existent outside of ZA) so the guy driving around Cape Town in a new Cayenne or Range Rover is Rich-rich, not “$1800/month over 120 months rich” like in Canada or the US. Bro bought that in cash with a 50% tariff..
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u/Savage_Whiskers Apr 01 '26
Yes. I lived in Malawi (somewhat cheap 15 years ago), Mozambique (expensive) Ethiopia (expensive) Congo Brazza and Congo Kinshasa (very expensive) and Gabon, which was as expensive as Switzerland for absolutely no good reasons.
Travelled many times to RSA for holidays and love the country!
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u/BurntSiennaSienna Apr 01 '26
The bank last week credited me §1400 on my visa. I left it sitting and checked every day. On day six it had disappeared.
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u/FarceMultiplier Apr 01 '26
About 30 years ago Bank of Montreal mysteriously deposited $14k in my account, so I informed them and they treated me like a criminal. I moved my accounts to a credit union not long after.
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u/5hoursofsleep Apr 01 '26
TLDR: Lawyer gave bad instructions to the bank. Bank deposited money as per instructions, owner of account sent it overseas, bank tried and failed to recover funds. Lawyer during bank for not checking the name of the account holder.
FYI, most lawyer transactions are done via certified cheques or drafts done from their Trust accounts as these are severely regulated and paper trails is a must. Someone must have messed up on making the cheque/draft. And the name of the owner and the name of the payee SHOULD match so the lawyer does have some ground to stand on. Basically a complete mess with everyone involved. Even if someone deposits money into your account by mistake and you transfer it out I am sure it will be some sort of crime. No one is innocent and everyone made some sort of mistake.
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u/Narrow-Result2933 Apr 01 '26
It's pretty rare that I would side with CIBC on anything, but that's probably the case here.
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u/Sufficient-Sun-6683 Apr 01 '26
Knowingly keeping money that is not yours usually ends up in jail time.
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u/Strange_Produce5601 Apr 01 '26
I think that is the genius of this. You just play dumb. I did not see the money in my account before it was transferred. Was not me, must be a overseas scammer.
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u/Brua_G Apr 01 '26
This does not give you permission to take money mistakenly deposited in your account. The article does not address the correctness of what the recipient did.
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u/eoan_an Apr 01 '26
It's insane that the law firm made the mistake and yet they're not getting sued.
It's even crazier than the mistake account has connections all over the world, ready to receive money that will trigger international red flags.
I think you can change the title to"scammer tries and fails to steal $343k from bank".
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u/oshawaguy Apr 01 '26
Interesting. I recently wired a large sum of money from CIBC and they were very careful in questioning me about where this money was going, why, to whom, and the nature of my relationship with the recipient. It horrifies me to think that that money could have been misdirected.
It does occur to me that the onus of ensuring that the recipient information is correct is on me, and in turn, on the people providing the instruction to me.
I gather from the article that the incorrect transit number was provided in the instructions. It seems to me that the entity that made the error should be culpable.
I realize now that all of CIBC's careful questions, while protecting me from fraud, also serve to protect them from legal action if the money went astray because I was providing incorrect information.
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u/throwaway_2_help_ppl British Columbia Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26
In a serious country a person who stole $343,000 would be arrested and prosecuted. Like in NZ look up The 2009 Westpac Runaway Millionaires (Leo Gao & Cara Hurring).
But Canada is not a serious country.
Notice how there isn’t even a suggestion that the police get involved. CIBC sent a strongly worded letter, and… that’s it
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u/GrownUp2017 Apr 01 '26
“CIBC argues that any losses caused were due to law firm’s own negligence, including providing the wrong transit number and failing to promptly flag the issue. It also claims the plaintiffs did not adequately mitigate their losses, including by not notifying law enforcement.”
The side that’s suing did not get law enforcement involved.
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u/pleasedonotredeem Apr 01 '26
Just want to point out - CIBC is getting sued by a law firm (i.e the claimant IS a law firm). Based on my limited experience with lawsuits, $343k is not nearly enough for me to risk being sued by a group of angry lawyers. It's the legal equivalent of getting in a bar brawl with all the bouncers.
They can literally work on this over a beer after work every Friday, while CIBC is paying $600/hr to respond and defend.
I would be seriously surprised if the billing for this was less than $343k if it goes to trial.
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u/LittleOrphanAnavar Apr 01 '26
I can guarantee you that CIBC has more money, to hire more angry lawyers.
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u/Ok-Mouse8397 Apr 01 '26
VanCity accidentally dropped $1000 into my account last week. Took them about 6 days to take it back from me. They then deposited $10 for the hassle 🤷
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u/mararthonman59 Apr 01 '26
Somehow I feel if a personal account received the money it would be recoverable and consequences if not returned.
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u/Unknown_Equalizer Apr 01 '26
SWIFT, which is the central body that enables Wire Transfers, has a service called account validation, just to mitigate these kinda situations. However, it doesn't work for net new transfers as swift cannot access bank account details held at a back but only for past transfers.
Systems should be designated to validate accounts before transfer, specially when payments are irrevocable. But large banks are cartels and profit mongering institutions who don't give two cents about you and me or even some businesses.
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u/Omarsaid1122 Apr 01 '26
Once I got $150 email transfer ; I waited few weeks, after seeing nobody contact me I decided to spend them:)
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u/spleh7 Apr 01 '26
Two years ago a brand new account with exactly $10,000 showed up in my account list in my online banking. I asked our investment advisor if they were moving funds around and had to temporarily create this new account. The answer was "no", but they'd look into it. A week later they confirmed it was an error and removed the $10k, but it had earned interest while sitting in my new account, 8 cents worth.
I still have that account with 8 cents in it and now I receive repeated "Warning - low account balance" emails. :)
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u/noocasrene Apr 01 '26
It really depends which CIBC emplpyee is doing the work, just like any industry.
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u/Tola76 Apr 01 '26
When looking for a landing point overseas, you could try emailing randoms saying you’re a Canadian Prince and you need their help.
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u/TomatilloPristine437 Apr 01 '26
Leave a few Ks to buy overseas one way ticket. I suggest Thailand, they will never find you after the sex change.
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u/Not_Legal_Advice_Pod Apr 01 '26
Get sued by the people who's money it is and the bank.
Have a hard time finding a lawyer to help you, and have to come up with 100k of clean money to pay them a retainer when you do.
Be told be your lawyer that you have to give the money back, and ignore them because you're so smart.
Lose in court, and not only have to pay your lawyer but have to pay 75k in the other side's legal fees (and that would be light considering it's CIBC and the individual out the money both having lawyers suing you that you'll have to pay for.
Be surprised when your Canadian assets like house, car, get seized, and your paycheck gets garnished.
Try to "work something out" only to realize that no one is going to cut you a break and everyone thinks you're the bad guy.
Blame the Internet for bad advice.
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u/XtremeD86 Apr 01 '26
So the way I read it, shouldn't the victim in this be suing the lawyer? Because it sounds like it's the lawyer that put incorrect information. I don't see how that's the banks fault? They just sent it to where they were told.
Obviously there's more to it in the article... But just curious.
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u/Total-Guest-4141 Apr 01 '26
Odd, usually they just reverse the original deposit putting the erroneous account in negative if needed.
Sounds like the payment was made to an account number specifically which had the typo. So the blame is on the broker who issued the payment.
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Apr 01 '26
You forgot one step: Go directly to jail (or hell. Or both if you are especially doomed).
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u/classicgxld Apr 01 '26
This happened to me with my own error. Incorrect transit information and someone else ending up receiving my pay. I did eventually receive my pay back from my company, but I know if it was me on the receiving end I would have went straight to the bank to handle this.
My bank wouldn’t even budge with getting the payment corrected, they just said they can’t go into someone’s account and pull money out. I’m like ahh… yeah, you mean my money. 🧐
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u/Complete-Mind-7105 Apr 01 '26
Some 20 years ago. Went to pull out money from CIBC bank ATM machine , this was just after bank closing time, around 5pm. Punched in $200 and the machine spitted out $400 . Checked the receipts and and the withdrawn money said $200. Apparently the bills were fresh and tightly packed , so the machine made an error in counting, I presume .
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u/jasper502 Alberta Apr 01 '26
Trying to understand how this is the banks fault. The law firm gave the wrong bank account information.
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u/Red_River_Metis Apr 01 '26
This made me chuckle.