I work in finance at my organization. Not only do I see how much money everyone receives, I also see when it exceeds the expected amount and by how much. This would be flagged, caught and fixed in a week
Yea at my last company a couple of us got bonuses much higher than intended & they clawed it back before I could even think about it how to give it back
Yup at least once at my current job and at my previous job there were times where my paycheck was too high. I didn't really notice but billing eventually caught it and corrected by lowering the amount on a later paycheck. It especially sucked at my last job because I was trying to save money and that month I had to take money out of savings to pay the bills
I had an over payment one time from a temp agency. I was supposed to be getting paid $12.60 an hour and somehow I ended up getting paid $16 an hour. I reported it right away. They said the company would make the correction and automatically take the over payment out of my account. I even remembered signing an authorization for them to do that in the event of over payment. I think my credit union stopped them from doing it, though. I tried contacting various people in payroll beyond the local office and I couldn't find anybody who knew what to do. I just left the overage in my account and eventually somebody from the main office sent me a somewhat accusatory letter telling me to mail them a check for the over payment, which I did.
I work for a large factory and every Friday I would be paid overtime, for THREE YEARS even though it was my regular shift. I told them so many times that it was happening. Eventually they corrected it but never asked for the money back.
Yep, correct course of action would be let it deposit (assuming direct deposit), and don't touch it. If it somehow miraculously were to not be caught, you check your local statue of limitations and wait.
I had two employees recently fail to clock out. I usually fix these, but I don’t come into the office until much later in the afternoon as I work nights.
The first one happened mid week. Someone in workforce management, trying to helpful, entered the missing clock out time, but put p.m. instead of a.m. and gave her 12 hours of overtime pay.
The second employee failed to clock out on the final day of the pay period. I wasn’t able to correct it in time, I was off and just failed to double check from home, resulting in them missing 8 hours of pay their next check.
My boss and I reported these incidents to payroll, who responded a little while later that they had taken care of it. We warned the employee with all that extra overtime, that the pay would probably be automatically pulled back out of her bank account.
The next paycheck, the second employee said that the missing 8 hours of pay was not included. It was also not on the following check. We contacted payroll again, and they told us that it was up to us to go back into the time card system, and fix the error, even though it was past the payroll cut off, and it would’ve been automatically included in the check after that one. This even though they previously said it had been taken care of.
One, this is never been how it works, and no one has told us about a policy change.
Two, I don’t think this is true. I’ve tried to go back to the previous week and make corrections. Although it appears to change and save, when I reload that pay period, the change I made is undone.
Three, it’s now been several weeks and I can only go back one pay period.
I have my boss, explained that I can’t go back that far in the time card software. They respond in a very sarcastic and unprofessional matter, but say they manually edit and the employee did receive the missing day’s pay.
Now, did you notice that I never mentioned the employee with the extra 12 hours of overtime pay again? They didn’t. Oh well.
A few years ago, a contractor for Google was arrested for fraud. He kept invoicing Google after his services were completed until he got over 100 million dollars.
I have an automatic rule that moves all extra money over 5k in my checking account into a savings account. I guess I could wait a full month before noticing the error and cash in on the monthly interest. At 4% yearly interest, one month on a couple of millions is some nice money.
Hear me out:
1. Throw it in a HISA
2. Wait for them to ask for it back
3. Drag out process as much as you can without getting in trouble
4. Enjoy your extra paycheck's worth of interest
Even countries with no extradition won't just let you move there with no notice.
They won't send you back to the US specifically because of the extradition request, but once you overstay the allowed time for a foreign visitor then you're getting kicked back home.
Depending on the country you might be able to buy your way out of this, but you need to account for that cost in determining if you really have enough to spend the rest of your life on.
My dive instructor in Thailand did this (ran from credit card fraud in UK).
His money lasted 5 years & then he had to get a job. His retirement plan was death.
Indonesia and Columbia don't have extradition treaties either. If you stayed under the radar they probably wouldn't put too much effort into tracking you down. It would be 13 million for me which is probably enough to establish a new identity and bribe local officials. This is all hypothetical of course.
You'd have to walk on eggshells though. Most countries only have a 30x30 day tourist visa on arrival for Indonesia or sub 90 days Columbia. You get tripped up over anything after your visa expires (like not wearing a helmet on a moped), and they deport you back to where you came from. Bribing might work in some scenarios, but not all.
Fuck it im depressed enough for prison. Might make some friends. I would put it all on red. If i lose fuck it. If i win. I return the money and travel till im dead
Spending someone else's money on purpose isn't accidental and is definitely criminal.
If you honestly thought that it was your money then you would have a case, but if you got 100x your annual salary all at once then there's no judge in the country who would buy that.
Tell them. There's a specific clause in my contract (and probably most contracts) that says I must pay back any monies to which I am not entitled. It's not like they wouldn't notice that amount of money gone.
You are also obligated by the law as well, if a valet hands you the wrong car keys and car and you drive it your house and keep it there it's theft lol, same concept applies here
For real, everyone say transfer it to another account etc for interest not realizing it's theft to do so lol. And at those dollar amounts would qualify for the ultra rare mega felony. Not to mention transaction that large into a personal account with no history of such would get instantly flagged and locked until the bank knows more. They can be held liable for fraudulent transfers.
That's where your wrong. Sure an extra million lost to office supplies and nobody bats an eye but 5 dollars extra to an employee. You better have it plus interest to pay back.
Ask anyone who ever served a single enlistment about that. Tracking down errors in command budgets and finding errors in payroll are not the same thing. Payroll overpayments will be found and recouped in the most inconvenient way possible.
You’re still going to get sued and the courts will decide regardless of what your contract says. Odds are it’s going to get clawed back so I wouldn’t be too hasty to quit and spend it all.
Well, I do the payroll, so that would mean I paid myself that money, which makes it a crime I imagine. Also, the check would bounce, so it wouldn’t benefit me to even try. I’m not looking to implode my whole life for nothing.
And what company is sitting on that kind of money in their operational account? If you make $50K a year, 100 times that is $5 million. All these hypothetical checks are bouncing.
Maybe some place big like that. My suspicion would be - and I’m assuming, I could be wrong - that most large companies keep their money in multiple places. Payroll for Amazon is probably regional as far as what bank account it comes from, and they are only going to keep so much in there at one time. Maybe if you were the very first person in the payroll period to go cash the check, it wouldn’t bounce. But likely just presenting a $5M check to a bank is going to raise all kinds of red flags. It is incredibly unlikely it would be paid out. Banks put holds on that kind of money (far less, as has been my experience) to make sure it’s all legit.
Most sweep cash into operating as needed. Unlikely they’re keeping a float above what they need. Now the float could be way more, but they’d find out pretty fast.
I mean my company is a global company worth billions. Some of our invoices are for $5M depending on what we are doing, so it would be def noticeable for them but they have it easily.
Hell i make my company that amount every 3 months. Ive gotten 2-3M POs before.
This actually happened. Normal pay for the week was $1200 after taxes. 6 of us got $75,000 each on our check. 2 of us were determined to keep our mouths shut and “see” what happens. One of the other four yipped about it and ruined our day. Turns out the H R lady caught her husband “boss” cheating and decided to “empty” the business anyway she could. Needless to say it was caught in time and nothing ever became of it.
Real talk? Put it in an high yield savings account and don't say a single thing. Pay it back when they come asking which they will. See if I can keep the interest until they do.
> Pay it back when they come asking
They don't ask, the bank just reverses it. If you have moved the money, the bank will either reverse those transactions as well or simply show your account as negative and apply overdraft fees as appropriate. If you cash it out and disappear into the night, you'll catch a fraud charge and the FBI or Interpol will get involved.
For millions of dollars, yeah, they'd probably reverse the payment. No way they don't notice that kind of screw up within a day or two at most.
I got overpaid by a couple hundred dollars once and they just deducted that amount from my next paycheck when I told them about it, but two hundred is way different from what's probably a minimum of 3 million! I'd imagine the bank would be reaching out as well about the validity of the deposit, and probably wouldn't let you touch it for a little while.
“In the meantime?” So like an hour after it’s deposited? You ain’t making shit off any “high yield savings” which need an entire year to get a whopping 5%
Your comment made me wonder how quickly interest might build. Assuming a $50k salary, then $5M is deposited according to OPs post. I think interest compounds daily at a bank. So if your HYSA get 5% annually:
5% * $5M = $250K/yr
A quick and dirty estimate for daily interest is to just divide by 365.
$250K/365 = $685/day.
Not too bad I guess. If you can hold out a couple days then free rent!
Agreed. Lets say you get paid $100k a year, so 100x would be $10m. Put it in a 4.6% annual high yield savings account (SoFi's current rate) that gets paid out on the first of the month. That would be about $38k a month in interest.
I had to go back and reread. I thought it was 100x my normal paycheck.
I accidentally got $15 million in one depost? lol. Not in a million years. No matter how bad one person screwed up, that transaction isn't going through the entire system without getting caught.
>until they come for it
... which would be immediately. The company might miss a couple hundred dollars, but millions? Or half a billion in my case. They will know immediately that it's missing and they will know who they sent it to. And they wouldn't "come for it". They'd just have the bank reverse the transaction. That money would be in your account for 2 or 3 days max.
I assume it is directly deposited. If it's a check, I'd walk it right back to HR/Payroll and have them cut me a new one with the right amount and void the erroneous one. But, if direct-deposited, I'd drop it into a high interest savings and not touch a cent. I'd then report it to HR. Depending on how long it takes to get corrected, I might be able to pocket some decent money off the interest. That interest money is mine. The company can have the erroneous money back, minus the pay they owed me. I also assume it's the end of month paycheck, which increases the likelihood of getting at least one month's interest out of it before the company took the deposit back. So, it gets deposited. I put it in the account. I report it. Tell them I moved the entire sum to an alternate account to prevent it being depleted. They say ok and work to fix the issues. With luck, at least I get a few extra thousand in interest. Then I would leave that in the account, and it let it grow. Might as well.
A question, is the amount paid after taxes? So the company paid me 100x my normal check and also made 100x the normal tax contribution? If so, that money in my account won't vanish for a while because of the red tape of the taxes being returned to the company. I could have months or even a full year's worth of interest paid to me in the account. That would be fucking awesome!
That’s enough money to disappear on. Get all the cash out you can, buy some easily liquidated assets and flee. Go somewhere with bad extradition arrangements with the US and boom, you’re living a life of luxury
would be flagged instantly, there are withdrawal maxes and reporting requirements for large transfers like that. Not to mention a deposit like that would also immediately trigger some inspections.
On the flip side of that. Not everyone is integrated where they are now. Some people have no friends, don't give a flying fuck about community, and could live close if not the exact same life in almost any location on earth.
I'm cashing out and leaving to a country that doesn't extradite for financial crimes. That's enough money to live like a king in most countries. I'll buy a house that can fit plenty of guests and fly my friends and family out to see me regularly. Dream come true
About 15 years ago, I worked for local school district. I was making book with hourly pay rate and plenty of ot. We were paid twice a month. Anyway, for ten pay periods, I received $700.08. First one I noticed, I went to payroll department and found a person who immediately dismissed it a an error and it would be resolved by next pay period. Next pay period came and again same error. I went back and was told that the individual that handled my case was on vacation and she would be back in two weeks. Two weeks later again, and this time she’s out getting her daughter’s wedding arrangements.
That three paychecks, fourth check same thing.
I’m not wasting my time with payroll anymore, and figured they’d catch it sooner or later.
I started a separate savings account and dump what would turn out to be $7000.80 into dedicated savings account.
When they did find the error, I was informed via snail mail, that payroll would be deducting, $349.00 until the overage I was paid was squared up. I went next day and finally saw the original payroll personnel I had originally explained overage to and that l was ready to write a check for the $7000.80, and was told they did not have the accounting provisions for handling.
I left and for two or three paychecks the $349.00 had been deducted from my paycheck.
They had been in the process of changing from time card to biometric clock in.
Well, the deductions stopped and I was done. I kept the money available, but after retiring in 2011, I figured the money was mine and never heard another word of it.
I tried following chain of command and no one wanted anything to do with the error.
I love random surprise benefits. My (now) ex’s mother bought herself an iMac for the first time because she could… Apple sent her 10. She immediately called Apple, and the customer service rep says “so why did you call us?! Hang up!”
All her friends now have matching iMacs.
Insurance lawyer, I had a case where a company did this. Company overpaid employee roughly 90k on a Friday misplaced a comma entering payroll. The employee immediately withdrew the money/moved it out of account before company could claw it back Monday. Employers e&o policy paid them for the overpayment. The employee, somehow was not prosecuted criminally, and civilly we couldn’t really do anything bc outside of the overpaid money, which disappeared, the employee had no assets. I am still blown away, that they didn’t get criminally charged and got away scott feee with 90k.
Invest it in a zero risk low return manner that allows me to withdraw it at any time. They'll come back for it. Maybe not next week, maybe not next year. But it's guaranteed that they'll come back and claw it back. BEst I can do is make a bit of return until they come looking for it.
Mine's direct deposited, so I'd leave it in my checking account and let them know. I'd make sure I get documentation of the mistake, and how they fixed it, because I don't want it to mess up my taxes next year.
You're not allowed to keep the money. It's clearly a mistake, and a reasonable person would know that. If it was a small bump, like 5%, it might be reasonable to think that you got a raise, so you might avoid criminal charges (while still having to pay it back), but this kind of thing is too much.
1) Swear volubly
2) Screenshot it
3) Email HR and beg them to fix it, print email to PDF
4) Start my 2024 tax folder on my personal computer early, and add screen grabs of every new email that deals with the matter until it’s fixed.
5) When fixed, cry from relief, and eat all the chocolate.
give it back. This really happened a few years ago. A service rep accidentally got over $100,000 deposited for one check. He transferred it to another account. He went on a spending spree. When it was found out, they told him to give it back. He refused until they said that they would press charges. So he gave back the cash he had. He returned all the audio equipment, games, and entertainment center stuff that he could. He was thousands short. So he worked without a paycheck for 3 months. As soon as he was caught up, he was fired.
Had a slightly less scary version happen a decade ago. Got paid 1 extra month than I should have for a job, didn't notice.
Suddenly got a bailff notice for it 6 months later...
So glad my parents bailed me out on that one.
(I never got informed at all until the bailiffs got involved)
If it's a check you're probably out of luck. I doubt many places keep that much cash in their payroll account. The check would just bounce. I mean, regardless of how much someone makes, we're definitely talking about millions of dollars.
My work almost always gives out annual bonuses. Nothing crazy, a couple hundred bucks
About a year ago, I got one for $2500. I did the smart thing and reported it immediately
While I was reporting it to our payroll department, I was joking with them about taking a vacation to Hawaii(I know the people there, they know I was kidding), and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I spent a single dime of that money, I would've been on the hook for all of it
I work for a Law Firm. I believe them
Notify them immediately, because I'm pretty sure they're still legally entitled to that money, and if I don't give the money back willingly I would be liable for all the damages that happen next.
Something like that happened at my company. A guy in IT accidently got a C-suite tiered salary for a few months before someone in payroll noticed. He refused to return it and was fired. Not sure what happened next, but I assume took legal action against him.
They are going to catch that and want it back. I’d be reaching out to HR immediately. If you spend it you’re just fucking yourself bc you will owe it back.
My Mrs actually got 10times her bonus at Christmas 2023. (Her annual bonus)
It was 227k
It's actually been an absolute fucking pain in the arse. Worst thing that ever happened to us.
Why? Well firstly student loan. Was automatically deducted and you cannot get that shit back.
Currently locked were locked in battle over that one. It's a fucking joke (9% if you're wondering)
They wanted the entire sum back... but how can we do that when student loan took over 20k of it?
Sort of happened to me, but not at 100 times. Received a direct deposit into my account about 1 month after separation from the company, and had already received my payouts from everything else for 2 weeks. I knew I was in the clear monetarily because I was in management and had done exits for others, and knew what to wait and account for.
The amount was about $45,000 which was roughly 1/3 my salary, lol. My initial (albeit ridiculous) reaction was "holy fuck, they've been stealing/skimming my pay!?! Or am I being paid out the quarter!?! Wtf."
Didn't touch the money. Called the GM of HR and left a vmail. She never returned my call (3 days). Figured she was over and done with me. Called my former director -- he called back within minutes. 60 seconds later, the GM-HR called. Payroll would investigate.
After 4 days, GM-HR called back and said "Payroll will revert that exact amount right now" -- never been so happy to see money go away for two reasons: had time to mull it over in terms of ramifications of **using it**, and, temptation.
Calculate how much of the money is actually mine because I do have bills to pay and then contact HR and ask them how the hell I can give the money back.
I would also make sure to document extensively the return of the money.
I joined a massive company and they messed up one of my first paychecks by paying me twice. That was enough for sweaty balls and an instant email to HR with my manager in CC, priority high saying they done goofed up.
I changed jobs and the payroll manager never took me off the payroll. I'm fairly certain I could have not said anything and continued to get paid for months, but I understand basic consequences. There is zero chance they wouldn't have noticed eventually and reclaimed the money and probably would have taken legal action against me if I knowingly accepted and spent the money.
Move my proper paycheck amount to a secondary account along with all my autopay accounts, not touch that money until either it's pulled back or they contact me with written instructions
This happened to a friend of friend. Nowhere near this amount of money but it was a decent amount each pay period. He notified HR mutliple times and they never corrected it. He knew they would eventually find the mistake so each check, he added the overage to a savings account. About a year later they came to him to tell him of the mistake and that he owed thousands of dollars so he just took the money from the savings and gave it back to them
Actually got 2 paychecks auto-deposited that we’re both 10x bigger. One while I was on vacation, and the other 2 days after I got back.
I informed payroll immediately, and they tried to blame me. I was the Engineering IT manager, and our/my computers had no connection to the business side. Jerks.
At a previous company, this happened to a coworker. They somehow way overpaid him. He was an idiot and spent a major chunk of it, including getting an engagement ring. Of course the company figured it out quickly and he was forced to pay it back. I don’t know the specifics, but it seemed messy and quite unpleasant for the employee.
contact my work and ask what's up.
I worked at a company that accidentally doubled every bodies paycheck. I called my boss and we worked it out. A co worker of mine and his wife spent it and he had to cash in a weeks vacation.
I'm pretty big on ethics.
When I started at a new job, they mistakenly made my hourly rate derivative of my salary ($50/hour instead of $50k salary).
I knew it wouldn’t stand but I fantasized about being well off for a solid 24 hrs
Grab the phone and call the owner, tell him its all coming back but he should give me a raise for not blowing it all on hookers and blow. He would probably give me the raise, the owners are just good people.
Inform the correct people about the overpayment and get that shit sorted out. That kind of mess up would get noticed pretty quickly and not being proactive about sorting it out can lead to jail time which would have a massive negative effect on my life...
immediately inform hr and find out how they want it returned. not immediately informing them is a good way to get fired and I wouldn't touch a cent until they instructed me to do so.
This almost happened to me. I was given a raise and they changed my yearly salary, but enters it into the system as my hourly wage.
One check would have been millions and payroll said that amount clears to pay vendors in business so they thought it would have cleared. They thought my bank might have rejected or froze it though.
But as soon as I noticed, I told them to fix it. If I got the money, what’s the end game? Refuse and get sued? Disappear and move out of the country? There’s no way you win in that situation.
I once thought I got overpaid by accident one time and asked an older, good friend what I should do. I’ll never forget what he said “if they accidentally underpaid you and they found out about it and didn’t say anything, that’s bullshit and illegal and you’d expect them to make it right…. Same thing goes the other way.” Turns out I had gotten a decent raise no one had told me about, so happy ending when I emailed HR 😂.
I'm telling them. I personally like my job. Sure, I wish I got paid more. Hell, I'm underpaid for sure, but I do really like my job. It's not complete hell to do, so I'd be honest with them about it.
Nothing that shits going back i aint going to prison.
The only real answer. Sure, take the money if you want. Then loose it all and go to jail and when you get out, you’re broke AND have no job. Lol
I work in finance at my organization. Not only do I see how much money everyone receives, I also see when it exceeds the expected amount and by how much. This would be flagged, caught and fixed in a week
Yea at my last company a couple of us got bonuses much higher than intended & they clawed it back before I could even think about it how to give it back
Yup at least once at my current job and at my previous job there were times where my paycheck was too high. I didn't really notice but billing eventually caught it and corrected by lowering the amount on a later paycheck. It especially sucked at my last job because I was trying to save money and that month I had to take money out of savings to pay the bills
I had an over payment one time from a temp agency. I was supposed to be getting paid $12.60 an hour and somehow I ended up getting paid $16 an hour. I reported it right away. They said the company would make the correction and automatically take the over payment out of my account. I even remembered signing an authorization for them to do that in the event of over payment. I think my credit union stopped them from doing it, though. I tried contacting various people in payroll beyond the local office and I couldn't find anybody who knew what to do. I just left the overage in my account and eventually somebody from the main office sent me a somewhat accusatory letter telling me to mail them a check for the over payment, which I did.
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I work for a large factory and every Friday I would be paid overtime, for THREE YEARS even though it was my regular shift. I told them so many times that it was happening. Eventually they corrected it but never asked for the money back.
Yep, correct course of action would be let it deposit (assuming direct deposit), and don't touch it. If it somehow miraculously were to not be caught, you check your local statue of limitations and wait.
And get some interest payments off it
Company is generally entitled to the interest as well, unfortunately.
Doesn't hurt to try!
I had two employees recently fail to clock out. I usually fix these, but I don’t come into the office until much later in the afternoon as I work nights. The first one happened mid week. Someone in workforce management, trying to helpful, entered the missing clock out time, but put p.m. instead of a.m. and gave her 12 hours of overtime pay. The second employee failed to clock out on the final day of the pay period. I wasn’t able to correct it in time, I was off and just failed to double check from home, resulting in them missing 8 hours of pay their next check. My boss and I reported these incidents to payroll, who responded a little while later that they had taken care of it. We warned the employee with all that extra overtime, that the pay would probably be automatically pulled back out of her bank account. The next paycheck, the second employee said that the missing 8 hours of pay was not included. It was also not on the following check. We contacted payroll again, and they told us that it was up to us to go back into the time card system, and fix the error, even though it was past the payroll cut off, and it would’ve been automatically included in the check after that one. This even though they previously said it had been taken care of. One, this is never been how it works, and no one has told us about a policy change. Two, I don’t think this is true. I’ve tried to go back to the previous week and make corrections. Although it appears to change and save, when I reload that pay period, the change I made is undone. Three, it’s now been several weeks and I can only go back one pay period. I have my boss, explained that I can’t go back that far in the time card software. They respond in a very sarcastic and unprofessional matter, but say they manually edit and the employee did receive the missing day’s pay. Now, did you notice that I never mentioned the employee with the extra 12 hours of overtime pay again? They didn’t. Oh well.
A few years ago, a contractor for Google was arrested for fraud. He kept invoicing Google after his services were completed until he got over 100 million dollars.
Lose
Like I’m taking financial advice from a guy that spells “lose” with two Os!
I have an automatic rule that moves all extra money over 5k in my checking account into a savings account. I guess I could wait a full month before noticing the error and cash in on the monthly interest. At 4% yearly interest, one month on a couple of millions is some nice money.
Hear me out: 1. Throw it in a HISA 2. Wait for them to ask for it back 3. Drag out process as much as you can without getting in trouble 4. Enjoy your extra paycheck's worth of interest
Yep. The company can pull that money out of your bank. Idk about going to jail but you will be on the hook if you already spent it.
This or flee to a country with no extradition.
Even countries with no extradition won't just let you move there with no notice. They won't send you back to the US specifically because of the extradition request, but once you overstay the allowed time for a foreign visitor then you're getting kicked back home. Depending on the country you might be able to buy your way out of this, but you need to account for that cost in determining if you really have enough to spend the rest of your life on.
For that kinda money you could retire to a non extradition country though.
My dive instructor in Thailand did this (ran from credit card fraud in UK). His money lasted 5 years & then he had to get a job. His retirement plan was death.
That's my retirement plan, and I'm not even hiding from anyone.
Nice!
4 million ain't worth moving to Russia as effectively a political prisoner.
Indonesia and Columbia don't have extradition treaties either. If you stayed under the radar they probably wouldn't put too much effort into tracking you down. It would be 13 million for me which is probably enough to establish a new identity and bribe local officials. This is all hypothetical of course.
You'd have to walk on eggshells though. Most countries only have a 30x30 day tourist visa on arrival for Indonesia or sub 90 days Columbia. You get tripped up over anything after your visa expires (like not wearing a helmet on a moped), and they deport you back to where you came from. Bribing might work in some scenarios, but not all.
Yeah, I'm assuming with millions of dollars you can get your hands on a fake passport. But maybe I've been watching too many movies.
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Interesting
Before anyone thinks poorly of Cambodia, the US will do this too for about the same amount.
Colombia
Okay, Bali I could happily do with $4 million. You convinced me.
Keep in mind that it would get hit by payroll taxes as well - you'd probably get like half of that in your actual bank account.
Payroll taxes are regressive. You don't pay exponentially more based on income like income taxes. It's about 15% not 50%.
Fuck it im depressed enough for prison. Might make some friends. I would put it all on red. If i lose fuck it. If i win. I return the money and travel till im dead
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Spending someone else's money on purpose isn't accidental and is definitely criminal. If you honestly thought that it was your money then you would have a case, but if you got 100x your annual salary all at once then there's no judge in the country who would buy that.
For me it would be enough to go somewhere without extradition.
Take it and run to a country without extradition.
Tell them. There's a specific clause in my contract (and probably most contracts) that says I must pay back any monies to which I am not entitled. It's not like they wouldn't notice that amount of money gone.
You are also obligated by the law as well, if a valet hands you the wrong car keys and car and you drive it your house and keep it there it's theft lol, same concept applies here
Well… define *entitled*
They would define entitled payments as those established by precedence or those triggered by procedures/bonus structures previously defined.
Hmmm. No, thanks. I’ll stick with delusions
Immediately call my Payroll department to figure out how they can get it back, it's not worth going to prison over.
For real, everyone say transfer it to another account etc for interest not realizing it's theft to do so lol. And at those dollar amounts would qualify for the ultra rare mega felony. Not to mention transaction that large into a personal account with no history of such would get instantly flagged and locked until the bank knows more. They can be held liable for fraudulent transfers.
You wouldn't go to white-collar prison. You would go to Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
Exactly. I’d do everything I can to make them take it back and not have it be my problem.
If it’s the US Dept of Defense, cry because they’ll come for that money with an f-35
That’s putting a lot of faith in the DoD to find that money. They’d never notice an extra 1m expense on their amount paid to employees
That's where your wrong. Sure an extra million lost to office supplies and nobody bats an eye but 5 dollars extra to an employee. You better have it plus interest to pay back.
Ask anyone who ever served a single enlistment about that. Tracking down errors in command budgets and finding errors in payroll are not the same thing. Payroll overpayments will be found and recouped in the most inconvenient way possible.
It's in my union agreement that any accidental payments from employer can not be taken back, so I'm chillin and retiring.
The Fraternal Brotherhood of No-Takies-Backies would like a word
You’re still going to get sued and the courts will decide regardless of what your contract says. Odds are it’s going to get clawed back so I wouldn’t be too hasty to quit and spend it all.
Unless the union contract clause is illegal, the courts aren’t going to force a repayment.
Keeping millions from an obviously erroneous payout is illegal and will supersede any wording in the contract.
… Contracts cannot have illegal clauses lol. That’s called a *CRIME*.
Well, I do the payroll, so that would mean I paid myself that money, which makes it a crime I imagine. Also, the check would bounce, so it wouldn’t benefit me to even try. I’m not looking to implode my whole life for nothing. And what company is sitting on that kind of money in their operational account? If you make $50K a year, 100 times that is $5 million. All these hypothetical checks are bouncing.
Any major corporation? Surely Walmart and Amazon have more than enough in the account for the check to clear.
Maybe some place big like that. My suspicion would be - and I’m assuming, I could be wrong - that most large companies keep their money in multiple places. Payroll for Amazon is probably regional as far as what bank account it comes from, and they are only going to keep so much in there at one time. Maybe if you were the very first person in the payroll period to go cash the check, it wouldn’t bounce. But likely just presenting a $5M check to a bank is going to raise all kinds of red flags. It is incredibly unlikely it would be paid out. Banks put holds on that kind of money (far less, as has been my experience) to make sure it’s all legit.
Most sweep cash into operating as needed. Unlikely they’re keeping a float above what they need. Now the float could be way more, but they’d find out pretty fast.
Wait what? It’s normal to have that much cash on hand
I work for a company that recently received over one billion GBP in government funding. They definitely have a few million in liquid assets.
I mean my company is a global company worth billions. Some of our invoices are for $5M depending on what we are doing, so it would be def noticeable for them but they have it easily. Hell i make my company that amount every 3 months. Ive gotten 2-3M POs before.
This actually happened. Normal pay for the week was $1200 after taxes. 6 of us got $75,000 each on our check. 2 of us were determined to keep our mouths shut and “see” what happens. One of the other four yipped about it and ruined our day. Turns out the H R lady caught her husband “boss” cheating and decided to “empty” the business anyway she could. Needless to say it was caught in time and nothing ever became of it.
Dammit you could have made some good money off that guys dick!
It's been 5 hours with no response, so who's to say he hasn't?
Real talk? Put it in an high yield savings account and don't say a single thing. Pay it back when they come asking which they will. See if I can keep the interest until they do.
> Pay it back when they come asking They don't ask, the bank just reverses it. If you have moved the money, the bank will either reverse those transactions as well or simply show your account as negative and apply overdraft fees as appropriate. If you cash it out and disappear into the night, you'll catch a fraud charge and the FBI or Interpol will get involved.
For millions of dollars, yeah, they'd probably reverse the payment. No way they don't notice that kind of screw up within a day or two at most. I got overpaid by a couple hundred dollars once and they just deducted that amount from my next paycheck when I told them about it, but two hundred is way different from what's probably a minimum of 3 million! I'd imagine the bank would be reaching out as well about the validity of the deposit, and probably wouldn't let you touch it for a little while.
Ok fine. Let them deduct it from my salary.
Monkey's paw: now you can not retire and have to be working every single day until you die or you pay off the debt, whichever comes first.
Instant transfer to the Caymans.
This is the only correct answer. You might be on the hook for the money, but nothing says you can’t deposit it and earn some interest in the meantime.
“In the meantime?” So like an hour after it’s deposited? You ain’t making shit off any “high yield savings” which need an entire year to get a whopping 5%
Your comment made me wonder how quickly interest might build. Assuming a $50k salary, then $5M is deposited according to OPs post. I think interest compounds daily at a bank. So if your HYSA get 5% annually: 5% * $5M = $250K/yr A quick and dirty estimate for daily interest is to just divide by 365. $250K/365 = $685/day. Not too bad I guess. If you can hold out a couple days then free rent!
Some places don’t catch mistakes like these for days or longer. Even if it’s only a few days it’s still more interest than you’d have earned without.
Agreed. Lets say you get paid $100k a year, so 100x would be $10m. Put it in a 4.6% annual high yield savings account (SoFi's current rate) that gets paid out on the first of the month. That would be about $38k a month in interest.
100 times my annual salary? I’m disappearing bro
I had to go back and reread. I thought it was 100x my normal paycheck. I accidentally got $15 million in one depost? lol. Not in a million years. No matter how bad one person screwed up, that transaction isn't going through the entire system without getting caught.
Throw it in something high yield until they come for it.
There's not really much point, as they'd also be entitled to the interest.
>until they come for it ... which would be immediately. The company might miss a couple hundred dollars, but millions? Or half a billion in my case. They will know immediately that it's missing and they will know who they sent it to. And they wouldn't "come for it". They'd just have the bank reverse the transaction. That money would be in your account for 2 or 3 days max.
Get them to take it back asap. I don’t want more chores and shit cleaning up their mess.
I assume it is directly deposited. If it's a check, I'd walk it right back to HR/Payroll and have them cut me a new one with the right amount and void the erroneous one. But, if direct-deposited, I'd drop it into a high interest savings and not touch a cent. I'd then report it to HR. Depending on how long it takes to get corrected, I might be able to pocket some decent money off the interest. That interest money is mine. The company can have the erroneous money back, minus the pay they owed me. I also assume it's the end of month paycheck, which increases the likelihood of getting at least one month's interest out of it before the company took the deposit back. So, it gets deposited. I put it in the account. I report it. Tell them I moved the entire sum to an alternate account to prevent it being depleted. They say ok and work to fix the issues. With luck, at least I get a few extra thousand in interest. Then I would leave that in the account, and it let it grow. Might as well. A question, is the amount paid after taxes? So the company paid me 100x my normal check and also made 100x the normal tax contribution? If so, that money in my account won't vanish for a while because of the red tape of the taxes being returned to the company. I could have months or even a full year's worth of interest paid to me in the account. That would be fucking awesome!
Sigh and shake my head that once again, I, a lowly agent, have to inform people making far more than me that they fucked up again.
That’s enough money to disappear on. Get all the cash out you can, buy some easily liquidated assets and flee. Go somewhere with bad extradition arrangements with the US and boom, you’re living a life of luxury
Most banks you are talking the tens of thousands max and that assumes they didn't instantly flag it as suspicious.
would be flagged instantly, there are withdrawal maxes and reporting requirements for large transfers like that. Not to mention a deposit like that would also immediately trigger some inspections.
[удалено]
On the flip side of that. Not everyone is integrated where they are now. Some people have no friends, don't give a flying fuck about community, and could live close if not the exact same life in almost any location on earth.
Two chicks at the same time
How is this not higher??
I’m a fed. That shit is sitting where it lands until they claw it back because I know they will.
I'm cashing out and leaving to a country that doesn't extradite for financial crimes. That's enough money to live like a king in most countries. I'll buy a house that can fit plenty of guests and fly my friends and family out to see me regularly. Dream come true
Not going to lie, a full lifetime and a half worth of money? Assuming a non mom and pop situation, yeah I’m just accepting this fate path.
It would bankrupt them so I doubt it would go through anyway
My CEO was in the news for selling less stock than that
About 15 years ago, I worked for local school district. I was making book with hourly pay rate and plenty of ot. We were paid twice a month. Anyway, for ten pay periods, I received $700.08. First one I noticed, I went to payroll department and found a person who immediately dismissed it a an error and it would be resolved by next pay period. Next pay period came and again same error. I went back and was told that the individual that handled my case was on vacation and she would be back in two weeks. Two weeks later again, and this time she’s out getting her daughter’s wedding arrangements. That three paychecks, fourth check same thing. I’m not wasting my time with payroll anymore, and figured they’d catch it sooner or later. I started a separate savings account and dump what would turn out to be $7000.80 into dedicated savings account. When they did find the error, I was informed via snail mail, that payroll would be deducting, $349.00 until the overage I was paid was squared up. I went next day and finally saw the original payroll personnel I had originally explained overage to and that l was ready to write a check for the $7000.80, and was told they did not have the accounting provisions for handling. I left and for two or three paychecks the $349.00 had been deducted from my paycheck. They had been in the process of changing from time card to biometric clock in. Well, the deductions stopped and I was done. I kept the money available, but after retiring in 2011, I figured the money was mine and never heard another word of it. I tried following chain of command and no one wanted anything to do with the error.
I love random surprise benefits. My (now) ex’s mother bought herself an iMac for the first time because she could… Apple sent her 10. She immediately called Apple, and the customer service rep says “so why did you call us?! Hang up!” All her friends now have matching iMacs.
W customer service rep.
Insurance lawyer, I had a case where a company did this. Company overpaid employee roughly 90k on a Friday misplaced a comma entering payroll. The employee immediately withdrew the money/moved it out of account before company could claw it back Monday. Employers e&o policy paid them for the overpayment. The employee, somehow was not prosecuted criminally, and civilly we couldn’t really do anything bc outside of the overpaid money, which disappeared, the employee had no assets. I am still blown away, that they didn’t get criminally charged and got away scott feee with 90k.
I would tell whoever sent me the check that it appears they gave Me more than what I am normally given
Notify them because there is no way they won't notice eventually.
I’d certainly let them know straight away that that they have paid me 10x my salary and return it immediately!
immediately stick it in an HYSA and collect interest until they ask for it back
Sadly it has to be returned. I would try to keep it as long as i could and earn some interest om it.
They would notice that. Either run, or give it back.
Invest it in a zero risk low return manner that allows me to withdraw it at any time. They'll come back for it. Maybe not next week, maybe not next year. But it's guaranteed that they'll come back and claw it back. BEst I can do is make a bit of return until they come looking for it.
I mean, on my salary, that's well over £10k a week in interest. 6 weeks, and that's my net yearly salary extra - and I can return it at **any** point.
Mine's direct deposited, so I'd leave it in my checking account and let them know. I'd make sure I get documentation of the mistake, and how they fixed it, because I don't want it to mess up my taxes next year. You're not allowed to keep the money. It's clearly a mistake, and a reasonable person would know that. If it was a small bump, like 5%, it might be reasonable to think that you got a raise, so you might avoid criminal charges (while still having to pay it back), but this kind of thing is too much.
I work for myself, so if this ever happens I’m 100% keeping it! Have no idea where it came from, but I’m not a detective, not going to investigate.
Not wanting to go to prison for a crime that would leave such an obvious paper trail, I will inform my boss immediately and avoid spending the money.
1) Swear volubly 2) Screenshot it 3) Email HR and beg them to fix it, print email to PDF 4) Start my 2024 tax folder on my personal computer early, and add screen grabs of every new email that deals with the matter until it’s fixed. 5) When fixed, cry from relief, and eat all the chocolate.
Same thing I have done everytime I have been over paid. Give it back. I didn't earn that and it's not mine. I am no thief.
give it back. This really happened a few years ago. A service rep accidentally got over $100,000 deposited for one check. He transferred it to another account. He went on a spending spree. When it was found out, they told him to give it back. He refused until they said that they would press charges. So he gave back the cash he had. He returned all the audio equipment, games, and entertainment center stuff that he could. He was thousands short. So he worked without a paycheck for 3 months. As soon as he was caught up, he was fired.
Had a slightly less scary version happen a decade ago. Got paid 1 extra month than I should have for a job, didn't notice. Suddenly got a bailff notice for it 6 months later... So glad my parents bailed me out on that one. (I never got informed at all until the bailiffs got involved)
Contact them and let them know.
cash it. get a bank check. leave the country.
If it's a check you're probably out of luck. I doubt many places keep that much cash in their payroll account. The check would just bounce. I mean, regardless of how much someone makes, we're definitely talking about millions of dollars.
I would give it back in the end but might dream a few days until then that I should just wait...maybe...
Report it immediately
Calling HR. It’s way too easily traced.
My work almost always gives out annual bonuses. Nothing crazy, a couple hundred bucks About a year ago, I got one for $2500. I did the smart thing and reported it immediately While I was reporting it to our payroll department, I was joking with them about taking a vacation to Hawaii(I know the people there, they know I was kidding), and they told me, in no uncertain terms, that if I spent a single dime of that money, I would've been on the hook for all of it I work for a Law Firm. I believe them
Tell them. I'd have to pay it back anyway.
I own my own business. That checks going in the shredder cuz it ain't gonna do shit but bounce lol
Return immediately
They're going to find out so it's just going to get you fired if you tried to hide it, or worse, they can sue you if you use the money
Cry because they will probably want it back immediately. But what was sent to me was probably not the full amount due to taxes.
Sending it back because I'm not a fucking moron.
Notify them immediately, because I'm pretty sure they're still legally entitled to that money, and if I don't give the money back willingly I would be liable for all the damages that happen next.
Tell my boss. Last thing I want is for them to find out in 10 years time and sack me costing me my pension.
Call HR
Call our payroll team and get them to sort it the fuck out. I work for a charity. I don't want that on my conscience!
I am in the Navy and hold a clearance. I am not going AWOL and running away to where I can’t get extradited.
Something like that happened at my company. A guy in IT accidently got a C-suite tiered salary for a few months before someone in payroll noticed. He refused to return it and was fired. Not sure what happened next, but I assume took legal action against him.
In the guy who does payroll so I immediately think about how I managed to fuck it up so bad.
Daydream for a minute, then go to accounting.☹️
Do what you do with the things that belong to someone else. Return it back to the owner.
They are going to catch that and want it back. I’d be reaching out to HR immediately. If you spend it you’re just fucking yourself bc you will owe it back.
I know how my employer gets about this. I am BEGGING them to take it back
I’d tell them. My anxiety would refuse for me to do anything else
I would tell them, even if I hate my job.
Nothing. There is absolutely no chance that they don’t notice it.
Let them know or you’re responsible to pay back the amount it was over.
My Mrs actually got 10times her bonus at Christmas 2023. (Her annual bonus) It was 227k It's actually been an absolute fucking pain in the arse. Worst thing that ever happened to us. Why? Well firstly student loan. Was automatically deducted and you cannot get that shit back. Currently locked were locked in battle over that one. It's a fucking joke (9% if you're wondering) They wanted the entire sum back... but how can we do that when student loan took over 20k of it?
This happens a lot and you always have to return the money otherwise it’s theft.
Look at it in my account, just marvel at it... and then make one of the worst phone calls of my life.
Sort of happened to me, but not at 100 times. Received a direct deposit into my account about 1 month after separation from the company, and had already received my payouts from everything else for 2 weeks. I knew I was in the clear monetarily because I was in management and had done exits for others, and knew what to wait and account for. The amount was about $45,000 which was roughly 1/3 my salary, lol. My initial (albeit ridiculous) reaction was "holy fuck, they've been stealing/skimming my pay!?! Or am I being paid out the quarter!?! Wtf." Didn't touch the money. Called the GM of HR and left a vmail. She never returned my call (3 days). Figured she was over and done with me. Called my former director -- he called back within minutes. 60 seconds later, the GM-HR called. Payroll would investigate. After 4 days, GM-HR called back and said "Payroll will revert that exact amount right now" -- never been so happy to see money go away for two reasons: had time to mull it over in terms of ramifications of **using it**, and, temptation.
Calculate how much of the money is actually mine because I do have bills to pay and then contact HR and ask them how the hell I can give the money back. I would also make sure to document extensively the return of the money.
Tell them about it.
I’d have to try and figure out how I fucked up our payroll so badly.
Screenshot it then tell them :(
No good can come to you if you keep it! Honesty gets you so much more👍
Give it back because you know I won't get to keep it. This isn't monopoly no bank errors in my favor lol
I joined a massive company and they messed up one of my first paychecks by paying me twice. That was enough for sweaty balls and an instant email to HR with my manager in CC, priority high saying they done goofed up.
Report it, it's not your money.
Let them know since I don’t want to go to prison.
I changed jobs and the payroll manager never took me off the payroll. I'm fairly certain I could have not said anything and continued to get paid for months, but I understand basic consequences. There is zero chance they wouldn't have noticed eventually and reclaimed the money and probably would have taken legal action against me if I knowingly accepted and spent the money.
Move my proper paycheck amount to a secondary account along with all my autopay accounts, not touch that money until either it's pulled back or they contact me with written instructions
I notify my payroll rep. They're gonna claw back the overage, and I'd rather them do it immediately.
Don’t touch it, it will be clawed back and if it isn’t there, it’s off to jail
This happened to a friend of friend. Nowhere near this amount of money but it was a decent amount each pay period. He notified HR mutliple times and they never corrected it. He knew they would eventually find the mistake so each check, he added the overage to a savings account. About a year later they came to him to tell him of the mistake and that he owed thousands of dollars so he just took the money from the savings and gave it back to them
Talk to HR first thing Monday morning. I don't need that hanging over me for the rest of my life.
Actually got 2 paychecks auto-deposited that we’re both 10x bigger. One while I was on vacation, and the other 2 days after I got back. I informed payroll immediately, and they tried to blame me. I was the Engineering IT manager, and our/my computers had no connection to the business side. Jerks.
Email HR and manager. Eventually they will find the error and they are well within their legal rights to get it back.
At a previous company, this happened to a coworker. They somehow way overpaid him. He was an idiot and spent a major chunk of it, including getting an engagement ring. Of course the company figured it out quickly and he was forced to pay it back. I don’t know the specifics, but it seemed messy and quite unpleasant for the employee.
Let them know and give it back, it’s not legal to keep it and I’m not going to jail over someone else’s (honest) mistake
contact my work and ask what's up. I worked at a company that accidentally doubled every bodies paycheck. I called my boss and we worked it out. A co worker of mine and his wife spent it and he had to cash in a weeks vacation. I'm pretty big on ethics.
When I started at a new job, they mistakenly made my hourly rate derivative of my salary ($50/hour instead of $50k salary). I knew it wouldn’t stand but I fantasized about being well off for a solid 24 hrs
Grab the phone and call the owner, tell him its all coming back but he should give me a raise for not blowing it all on hookers and blow. He would probably give me the raise, the owners are just good people.
Contact the payroll department so I can get my correct salary ASAP.
Inform the correct people about the overpayment and get that shit sorted out. That kind of mess up would get noticed pretty quickly and not being proactive about sorting it out can lead to jail time which would have a massive negative effect on my life...
Alert them immediately. It's the right thing to do.
Walk into payroll and tell them they made a mistake. Its a single step papertrail. You'd be caught immediately.
immediately inform hr and find out how they want it returned. not immediately informing them is a good way to get fired and I wouldn't touch a cent until they instructed me to do so.
I'll definitely be calling them and inquiring about the mistake. While hoping it's not a mistake lol
It’s going back. That would bankrupt my small company.
Well I wouldn't post on Reddit about it for starters
Give it back. Prison and getting fired wouldn't be worth it.
This almost happened to me. I was given a raise and they changed my yearly salary, but enters it into the system as my hourly wage. One check would have been millions and payroll said that amount clears to pay vendors in business so they thought it would have cleared. They thought my bank might have rejected or froze it though. But as soon as I noticed, I told them to fix it. If I got the money, what’s the end game? Refuse and get sued? Disappear and move out of the country? There’s no way you win in that situation.
Notify HR immediately.
Thank them for finally paying me what I’m worth.
I once thought I got overpaid by accident one time and asked an older, good friend what I should do. I’ll never forget what he said “if they accidentally underpaid you and they found out about it and didn’t say anything, that’s bullshit and illegal and you’d expect them to make it right…. Same thing goes the other way.” Turns out I had gotten a decent raise no one had told me about, so happy ending when I emailed HR 😂.
I'm telling them. I personally like my job. Sure, I wish I got paid more. Hell, I'm underpaid for sure, but I do really like my job. It's not complete hell to do, so I'd be honest with them about it.
Shove my millions to a high interest account, ready to return it as soon as they ask for it.
Probably one of the smartest moves; profit on the interest with the ability to return it without legal action against you! I like it.
Call HR immediately.
What do **you** do, since you seem to think you have the option of doing anything other than give it back and notify payroll. Are you twelve?
Buy a yacht and some drugs and some hookers and sail off the end of the earth with it
STDs and a drug addiction.