$50B Deposit Baffles Customer

Mistaken deposit lasted until the bank noticed it
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 3, 2021 4:20 PM CDT
Bank Gives $50B, Takes It Back
A Chase ATM in New York in January. The bank noticed the mistaken deposits and removed them.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

There was a moment when Darren James thought the $50 billion that showed up in his bank account might really be his. "I was excited for sure," James said, "really surprised how it got there and wondered if I had a rich uncle that gave it to me." The inheritance only lasted four days, until Chase Bank returned the account to its rightful balance, CNN reports. James, a real estate agent in Baton Rouge, and his wife had noticed the deposit last Saturday. On Tuesday, it was gone, he said. "We're still trying to figure out what happened," James said, adding, "but we know we aren't the only ones this happened to."

Chase told a slightly different version to CNN, saying that a technical glitch a couple of weeks ago caused the errant deposits, and that the balances were corrected the next day. That's more than Chase told him, James said. "The concern is whether my account was compromised, and the bank hasn't even called me," he said. "We haven't heard anything from anyone." Either way, James said he didn't consider tapping the $50 billion. "My moral compass only goes one way and that's the correct way," he said. Then James conceded: "Unless it was a rich uncle or one of those emails I probably responded to from a Saudi Arabian prince who promised to give me $50 billion—that's a different story." (Spending this sort of windfall can come at a price.)

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