Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

My wife and I were watching a TV show where lawyers were discussing interesting court cases.

The case that really caught our attention was about a guy who sent his massive multi-million won Cheonsae (or maybe it was Wolsey) payment by bank transfer to the WRONG number. By accident, instead of ending the number with a 4, he pressed 1, but didn't realize it. The name which came up on the screen was, by total chance, nearly identical to the name of the person he was transferring to (easy to see how, in Korea)... so he never noticed.

He send tens of millions of won to the wrong person.

So you may be thinking... no problem... he can later get the money back, right? WRONG! Not in Korea. As it turns out, the random person he sent it to owned a large sum of money to his bank. So immediately after the money was wired into this account accidentally, the bank KEPT the entire amount and REFUSED to give it back to the original sender who made the mistake.

The case went to court, and guess who won? THE BANK! According to Korean law, when you send a bank transfer to the wrong address, it is basically your fault for authorizing it.

The person who accidentally sent the money was not allowed to sue the bank. They had to go after the debtor they accidentally sent it to in order to get their money back (good luck).

So the moral of the story is, be 100 percent sure of who you're sending your money to!

Horangi Munshin · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Location: Busan

This is true. I was told this by an ex-banker. Also during the IMF/Chaebol crisis period, many people put money away in accounts with fake names. If they forgot their fake details they were SOL!

diver · Joined: 16 Jun 2003

On my SC First online transfer service, you enter all the details and then hit a "Confirm" button.

Then you get to look at all the details again before you press "Send".

That must be the banks' "out". You have two chances to look at the info before you send. Once when you enter and once when the bank asks you "Are you sure?".

crossmr · Joined: 22 Nov 2008 Location: Hwayangdong, Seoul

This is the way it should be, but it should apply to the banks who screw up too.. if they accidentally deposit 10,000,000 to your account and you take it out, too bad so sad for them..

Horangi Munshin · Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Location: Busan

KYC · Joined: 11 May 2006

that's effed up...!!

People make mistakes you know. I once deposited some money back home, but I forgot one digit in my account number. I didn't realize the mistake until at least 4 days later. I went to the bank and the money was returned to me.

jvalmer · Joined: 06 Jun 2003

I've had my school once overpay my, then take the overpaid amount out. Based on the time stamps on my on-line banking window, this happened within a few minutes.

So, I think they do have a certain time window where they have an opportunity to withdraw the money. But, I have yet to figure out how, maybe it's only available to business accounts? Not sure.

NightSky · Joined: 19 Apr 2005

I have sent money to the wrong account before and gotten it back. that was a few years ago. don't remember exactly how it all went down. just keep all your receipts though.