Oops! Thai bank transfers half a million baht to the wrong account

[webfact]

Oops! Thai bank transfers half a million baht to the wrong account

 

Picture: Thai Rath

 

Thai bank Krung Sri Ayudhya mistakenly put more than half a million baht in the wrong account because the first name was the same and the surname similar.

 

On Friday Wanna Panyaphijai, 54, took 523,500 baht into a branch in Chumpon to pay into the account of Kittisak Nisapha.

 

Next day when the recipient said he had not got the money she went back to the bank and it was discovered it had been transferred to Kittisak Suwapha.

 

The wrong recipient was contacted and turned out to be the owner of "Mac Guru" an Apple affiliated mobile shop.

 

Yesterday after checking that everything was above board Kittisak Suwapha, 34, went to Chumpon police to hand the money back to the rightful owner and have the matter officially recorded by the police.

 

Embarrassed bank manager Chutima Sathitwong said they were awfully sorry - it was a mistake made by the bank because the names were similar.

 

She thanked the mistaken recipient of the money for his actions.

 

Source: Thai Rath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-04-30

[SABloke]

So your name is more relevant than your bank account number in the Thai banking system?  

[overherebc]

Went to a certain bank to transfer 100,000 to another ac' on leaving got 5,000 at the ATM and noticed my ac' was still at the previous balance.

Went back to the counter to check and the girl had transferred the money out and back in to my ac'

[overherebc]

8 minutes ago, SABloke said:

So your name is more relevant than your bank account number in the Thai banking system?  

scary

[jaltsc]

"Thai bank Krung Sri Ayudhya mistakenly put more than half a million baht in the wrong account because the first name was the same and the surname similar."

 

The reason wasn't that the surname was similar. The reason was that the employee of the bank screwed up and didn't know how to perform his required duties. It's always someone or something else's fault, No one knows how to take responsibility and then rectify the error by improving the system. 

[ezzra]

You be surprised how little information the tellers and the bank staff

for that matter has on their screens when it comes to where your monies

go, apart from name and account  number they have nothing showing,

and if you want more info on a customer like address, ID number or

god forbid a picture, you're up a stone wall faces... 

[Misterwhisper]

8 minutes ago, ezzra said:

You be surprised how little information the tellers and the bank staff

for that matter has on their screens when it comes to where your monies

go, apart from name and account  number they have nothing showing,

and if you want more info on a customer like address, ID number or

god forbid a picture, you're up a stone wall faces... 

Or you're being told: "No hab!"

[robblok]

12 minutes ago, ezzra said:

You be surprised how little information the tellers and the bank staff

for that matter has on their screens when it comes to where your monies

go, apart from name and account  number they have nothing showing,

and if you want more info on a customer like address, ID number or

god forbid a picture, you're up a stone wall faces... 

You won't get that information easy from Dutch banks either (and they do have it) only with a police report or something like that. There is such a thing as privacy.

What I don't get in this story is why they just did not check the account number. Surely someone did not try to send money to someone else without an account number ?

[watcharacters]

17 minutes ago, ezzra said:

You be surprised how little information the tellers and the bank staff

for that matter has on their screens when it comes to where your monies

go, apart from name and account  number they have nothing showing,

and if you want more info on a customer like address, ID number or

god forbid a picture, you're up a stone wall faces... 

 

I would definitely not be surprised after being told the banks keep no account records past 12 months.    Now that did surprise me!

[KhunBENQ]

1 hour ago, SABloke said:

So your name is more relevant than your bank account number in the Thai banking system?  

I bet that this happy half millionaire didn't know the account number and let the clerk search for it by name.

And if you know something about Thai script you might fear for trouble.

In Thailand the number is THE anchor point as everywhere else.

 

Oh, how I love my internet banking

No number, no transfer.

Adding account: double/triple check number and name.

And this is way better than in Germany where I can never check number AND name before transferring. Wrong number and you are ....

(banks regularly don't check about matching name)

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[cornishcarlos]

23 minutes ago, ezzra said:

You be surprised how little information the tellers and the bank staff

for that matter has on their screens when it comes to where your monies

go, apart from name and account  number

 

I guess the account numbers must have been very similar too, what a coincidence !! 

[mommysboy]

10 minutes ago, robblok said:

You won't get that information easy from Dutch banks either (and they do have it) only with a police report or something like that. There is such a thing as privacy.

What I don't get in this story is why they just did not check the account number. Surely someone did not try to send money to someone else without an account number ?

They surely did!

 

Still, the bank made the error. 

 

What gets me is that the return of the money depends on the honesty of the recipient!  It should be the responsibility of the bank to reimburse the wrongly sent money and then reclaim it from the third party.  

 

 

 

[KhunBENQ]

I disagree with the a number of posts.

It's not simply the "banks fault" only.

If I want to send such an amount (in particular):

I should have the correct account number! (which the sender obviously didn't have).

I read the transfer slip with name and account no. before signing (which is mandatory).

 

How would this work in your country?

 

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[happy chappie]

Best change my name to somchai as there's a few somchai depositing in their accounts today and everyday,might get lucky.oh wait a minute it could work the other way and end up with zero in my account.TIT.

[KhunBENQ]

Send to "Happy Chappy" please.

OOPS.

It should be Happie Chappie.

Oh no, Happy Chappie.

Stupid bank!

Edited April 30, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[robblok]

14 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

They surely did!

 

Still, the bank made the error. 

 

What gets me is that the return of the money depends on the honesty of the recipient!  It should be the responsibility of the bank to reimburse the wrongly sent money and then reclaim it from the third party.  

 

 

 

Of course it should be the responsibility of the bank. How can they make a mistake if they have an account number. There are number proofs on those type one wrong and it wont work.

[scorecard]

50 minutes ago, robblok said:

You won't get that information easy from Dutch banks either (and they do have it) only with a police report or something like that. There is such a thing as privacy.

What I don't get in this story is why they just did not check the account number. Surely someone did not try to send money to someone else without an account number ?

 

Excellent point:

 

"What I don't get in this story is why they just did not check the account number. Surely someone did not try to send money to someone else without an account number ?"

 

Many people have several accounts with the same name at the same bank.

 

In any event, I would expect my bank to insist I give them an account number or no transaction.

 

Many years back staff at most Thai banks, Including branch managers, did not have access to a full national list of customers. Why, banks didn't trust their staff to have access to that much info.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2018 by scorecard

[KhunBENQ]

1 minute ago, robblok said:

if they have an account number

Where do you read that they had?

 

If they had there would be no need to discuss about name spelling!

[mommysboy]

16 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

I disagree with the a number of posts.

It's not simply the "banks fault" only.

If I want to send such an amount (in particular):

I should have the correct account number! (which the sender obviously didn't have).

I read the transfer slip with name and account no. before signing (which is mandatory).

 

How would this work in your country?

 

 

Of course it is the bank's fault!

 

They sent it to an account holder with a different name.

 

If the teller felt there was insufficient information, she could have declined the transaction; she really should have done this imo, since there was no account number given.

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai bank Krung Sri Ayudhya mistakenly put more than half a million baht in the wrong account because the first name was the same and the surname similar.

Jesus...

[Bluespunk]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

On Friday Wanna Panyaphijai, 54, took 523,500 baht into a branch in Chumpon to pay into the account of Kittisak Nisapha.

 

Next day when the recipient said he had not got the money she went back to the bank and it was discovered it had been transferred to Kittisak Suwapha.

Those names are not similar.

[trainman34014]

26 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

I disagree with the a number of posts.

It's not simply the "banks fault" only.

If I want to send such an amount (in particular):

I should have the correct account number! (which the sender obviously didn't have).

I read the transfer slip with name and account no. before signing (which is mandatory).

 

How would this work in your country?

 

 

The way out works in my country is you give them your bank card and the money, no paper involved, the girl flashes your card on the side of her computer and types in the amount to your account details on the screen, receipt is printed by computer, you check it and leave....all done in three minutes !

 

The banking system in Thailand is like almost everything else....300 years out of date.

[worgeordie]

5 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Those names are not similar.

The last three letters are,that seems all they need for an excuse !

regards Worgeordie

Edited April 30, 2018 by worgeordie
correction

[mommysboy]

27 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Those names are not similar.

They may be in Thai script.

[KhunBENQ]

25 minutes ago, trainman34014 said:

and types in the amount to your account details

"your account" ???

 

Did you read the opening post?

Guess not.

 

And the same would happen here if I want to deposit money to my account.

Just that this is not the case of this thread

 

[KhunBENQ]

1 minute ago, mommysboy said:

They may be in Thai script.

Exactly.

I tried to find the names.

Took more than a minute and so I gave up and also finish with this hopeless thread

[scorecard]

40 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

Where do you read that they had?

 

If they had there would be no need to discuss about name spelling!

 

Well why didn't the bank take a professional appraoch and quickly ask the deposit for an account number?

 

The reality is that the first part of the family name quoted in the story is nothing like the account name they used to go ahead and complete the transfer.

 

My guess is that there are millions of names in Thailand (same any country) which are quite similar, again bank should not have said 'it's similar lets' go ahead'.

 

I'm assuming that 99% of TV posters and 99% of the Thai folks I have contact with would have been impressed when they got a call from the bank saying 'please give us an account number so that we can proceed with the transaction'.

 

IMHO the bank should not have proceeded and even more serious is that it's a very large amount of money.

 

Thai banks...

 

 

 

 

[stevenl]

I also think she didn't have the account number, so it was done by name.

[Bluespunk]

11 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

They may be in Thai script.

Yeah, I guess you could be write.

 

However, I can read and, to a much more limited extent, write Thai, I wouldn't spell the first few letters of those names with the same letters in Thai script.

 

Though as I say, my ability to write is limited, so I could be very wrong.

Edited April 30, 2018 by Bluespunk

[Pib]

Quote

On Friday Wanna Panyaphijai, 54, took 523,500 baht into a branch in Chumpon to pay into the account of Kittisak Nisapha.

 

Well, the next time Khun Wanna goes to a bank to deposit money she needs to provide/know the account number to deposit to versus just giving the bank a person's name to transfer to.  Lots of people with similar or even same name...can cause all kinds of errors.