Banking Blunder: Transferred $50,000 to Wrong Account, Recipient Won't Return It

A major mix-up at Bank Hapoalim: A man named Oz Ovadia asked his partner to transfer a large sum from her account to his — but a 'small' typing error sent 50,000 ILS to another account holder, who is now complicating matters.

When the couple discovered the unfortunate mistake, they assumed the bank would resolve it by canceling the transfer or having the account holder return the money. However, it seems the bank's policy is quite puzzling. "We logged into our account through the Bank Massad app to make the transfer. We entered my name, bank number, branch number, account number, and approved the transfer," Ovadia told Nesli Berda on "Morning News" on Channel 12.

"After two or three days, I noticed my account wasn't credited and started to worry," Oz shared. "We checked her account again to see if it had been debited at all, thinking there might have been an issue and the transfer hadn’t happened."

Then the critical mistake was discovered. "I immediately realized there was an error with one digit of the branch number. The account was correct, the name was correct, everything was correct — except for one digit. Instead of branch 582, we accidentally typed 782. At that moment, I wasn't worried; I thought, 'Surely there's no such account.' It would go into error mode, and I’d notify the bank so they could correct it. The next morning I contacted the bank," Berda recounted.

But instead of ending up at Bank Massad, the money entered a different account at Bank Hapoalim, with branch number 782.

Now, even though it's clearly a human error, the bank denies liability, placing it on the Ovadia couple. "The bank approached the client and asked them to return the money. The client said they were not willing to do so. The bank says, 'Yes, you wrote the beneficiary's name, but we don't even look at the name; we just consider the number.' The client claims it's the bank's mistake and refuses to return the funds."

And what about Bank Massad? Why haven’t they intervened? "The bank says they don't have access to Bank Hapoalim's client list, and they can't verify who the account holder is. Once the money was transferred, the ball was in Bank Hapoalim's court."

The bizarre response from Bank Hapoalim: "The bank agreed to help and contacted the recipient to request the return of the funds. Unfortunately, the client refused the bank's request. We emphasize that once the recipient is credited, Bank Hapoalim cannot cancel the transfer. If the recipient opposes returning the funds, the bank cannot unilaterally debit the account for the specified amount."