A French charity association sold hundreds of lottery tickets for a raffle with the intention of paying for a children’s play area in a town of a thousand inhabitants. When they did the math, they found that they had obtained nearly 7,000 euros, specifically 6,875 euros, so they decided to deposit it into an ATM and then make a transfer to the account that would be responsible for building the park.
Everything seemed normal until, as reported Le Parisiantwo of the association’s leaders, Amandine and Emmanuelle, realized that the money was nowhere to be found and no one in charge of the bank could explain it. “I panicked,” said one of them in the interview. And it was no wonder, since the money had been obtained after months of work organizing an evening for 350 people and selling lottery tickets.
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“As we always do, we went to the Credit Mutuel bank in Luisant, right after the draw took place. We deposited the money and they gave us the receipt that everything was fine,” said Amandine, who is the president of the association.
But “when we went the next day, in the morning, we found the account at zero. We thought it would be temporary, but there was nothing on Monday, nor on Tuesday either.” When he informed the other members of the association, “we all entered the account up to ten times a day and every morning, when we got up, we expected to see the money reappear.”
Three days later they asked for 4,000 euros
On Wednesday they still saw nothing in the bank, and the pressure increased when the MSD handball association, which organized the event with them, asked for 4,500 euros. “They said they needed that money urgently because they had to organize a course for volunteers.”
“We explained to them what had happened and that we were also in trouble because we had to pay the suppliers with that money.”
The problem increased when they tried to contact the bank. “They gave us a robotic customer service center, where they told us that it was not their responsibility, but that of another department that is responsible for what happens at the ATMs.”
Then they became suspicious, “we believed that it was most likely that a hacker had entered the account, but no one wanted to know anything, they were not responsible,” said Emmanuelle, the treasurer.
A bank advisor told them that they did not know where the money was.
On the fifth day, when they had already sent dozens of emails, a bank worker called them. “He told us they had no idea where the money could be and I just panicked.”
Volunteers and parents came to the association, asking for explanations. “The president of the handball team supported us, but these situations are complicated because in a few hours the rumor had already spread and, of course, when the money disappears… they surely thought we had kept it.”
The bank contacted them again a few days later. The money had appeared in the account again. “The person in charge of the bank office explained to us that the money had always been there, that it had never been lost.” So what had happened? “A paper clip or some small object had disabled the ATM’s reading mechanisms.” Now they smile, “the funds were always safe,” they say.