An Australian woman reportedly discovered that she was $19 million richer and her mortgage was paid off.
“I’m a lawyer, which is why I haven’t spent the money,” she told the paper. “Mostly because I figured it wouldn’t play out that well trying to play dumb on that.”
She said that her attempts to alert the National Australia Bank (NAB) about the mistaken transfer into her account have failed.
About a month ago, she got a letter from the bank explaining that the mortgage payments for her home loan would be $25 million—rather than $2,500, which was agreed by the two parties.
“I got in touch with my broker and he said ‘I’m sure it was a typo, I’ll get in contact with them', but obviously the mistake was never fixed,” she told Australian Associated Press.
That Friday, Wainwright said that the bank returned her bank balance back to normal.
“They took it out this morning,” she said.
A spokesperson for the NAB thanked the lawyer for alerting them to the mistake.
“The error has been fixed and the payment has been reversed,” a spokesperson told SMH. “Although the funds appeared in the account, they were not available for withdrawal. We thank the customer for contacting us and we’re sorry for any trouble caused.”
She posted a photo of the transaction on Facebook.
“When NAB accidentally pays out your entire mortgage, and gives you an extra [$19 million] to redraw … do I skip the country??”, she jokingly wrote.
