The mistake of sending money to the wrong person has probably happened to most of us. But how do you handle the situation when you are on the receiving end, and the person who accidentally sent you money owes you? This is what I did, but I was labeled as the villain.
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I work as a nurse, so my working times can be really extreme, especially depending on the number of shifts I am working. On this particular day, I had worked a double shift and could not wait to get into bed and pass out.
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By the look of things, he realized his mistake at about 08:30, but by then I was dead asleep. I woke up at 4:00 p.m. and was met with hundreds of missed calls and about 150 text messages begging me to send the money back.
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For more context on this money dilemma, my ex-husband and I have been divorced for seven years. He is the father to all my four children, but four years ago, he faced a few financial setbacks when he lost his job and fell back on his rent.
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But after so many years of promising to pay it back and failing to do so, while living his best life with his girlfriend, I saw the accidental money transfer as an opportunity to pay myself back.
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Naturally, this painted me as a villain in their story because the girlfriend had already been bad-mouthing me so much that it was borderline harassment, which led me to shut down my social media. This event impacted the cordial relationship I had with my ex-husband’s parents.
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This is not true. We have been separated for almost a decade, and my life has changed significantly since then. I am very invested in keeping my children safe and making sure they are happy. My problem with my ex-husband is that he never considered paying me back when I was trying to support him in his time of need.
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Nonetheless, I decided to share the story with a colleague to understand how the situation looked from someone else’s perspective. While I was telling the story, another person from work overheard and decided I was wrong for taking the money owed to me.
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The child support company is also aware of the many payments in arrears, and that is being handled. I think it has even gotten to a point where his wages will be implicated. Even if my ex had taken this to court, I think I still would have won because I believe I did the right thing by only taking the money he owed me.
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