Tens of thousands of people in the United Kingdom thought they had been good this year when they saw their bank accounts on Christmas Day, all of which had more money than they expected. Santa Claus doesn't have enough money in his bank account to justify the $176 million in payments, but the European bank wants its money back, please.
It has come to light in the last few days that a technical issue led to the sending out of millions of dollars to about 75,000 people and companies. The payments were sent to people who had already been paid by a business with a Santander account.
The bank paid these people a second time, but the money for the extra payment came from its own funds. If the situation have been reversed, it would be less painful than the anger of 2,000 customers.
Many of the people who received the payments were customers of other banks, according to the New York Times. In a statement to the outlet, Santander UK apologized for the error and said it would work with its rivals to get the money back. It will be using its own processes in the operation, but it didn't say what those were.
The bank told the Times that some payments from corporate clients were duplicated on recipients accounts. We will be working with many banks in the UK to recover duplicated transactions, and none of our clients were left out of pocket.
The technical error that resulted in the mistaken payment was brought to the attention of the company by Gizmodo. If we do hear back, we will make sure to update this article.
The people who received the money could end up in trouble if they spend it. Spending money that mysteriously ends up in your account sounds like a recipe for disaster.
The tale of Kelyn Spadoni, a Louisiana woman who received a million dollars from Charles Schwab by mistake, is a cautionary tale. The company originally intended to deposit $82.56 into her Fidelity account. Spadoni bought a car and a house a day after she got the money, but refused to answer Charles Schwab when it contacted her asking for the money.
Spadoni was arrested last year for theft, fraud, and illegal transfer of monetary funds. It is not clear what happened to the rest of the money.
We already have too many problems, so we should do ourselves a favor and not spend money unless you know where it comes from.
