W8.6b returned to people who sent money to wrong accounts

A total of 8.6 billion won ($6.7 million) was returned to 7,015 people who wired money to the wrong accounts since July 2021, the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Wednesday.

The Misdirected Wire Transfers Recovery Support System, implemented in July 2021, is a system that returns money that was sent by mistake, which applies to those who wired amounts between 50,000 won and 50 million won. Requests for return need to be filed within a year of the date transfer was made.

The average amount of money wired in error amounted to 1.22 million won ($946), and 66 percent were less than 1 million won. Of all, 23 people wired over 10 million won ($7,755) by mistake, 650 million won ($504,034) in total.

Most of the errors occurred because people wired money to the wrong account numbers, and in other instances, people were confused between those who had similar names. The report revealed that 46.4 percent of the people made mistakes because they were exhausted or under the influence of alcohol, 29.7 percent because they were distracted, and others because of health conditions or technical issues.

Transfer mistakes occurred most on Fridays, at around 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and among people between the ages of 30 to 50.

"We will continue to strengthen the system upon feedback and scrutiny, and actively promote the system to other nations to mark a place in finance," an official from the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation said.