Consumer complaint received 2024-04-29
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem — 
Company: TransferWise Ltd (IL)

On XXXX I made a payment to XXXX XXXX for the amount of {$4600.00} through Wise money transfer services. Immediately after I sent the money, I realized it was sent to the wrong recipient with different name and different registered address than the ones I provided to Wise. I immediately contacted Wise by phone on the same day ( less than 30 minutes after transaction was completed ) and was told by the representative that she could not do anything at this point and would escalate it to another department and they will call me back as soon as possible. I then on the same day contacted my bank, XXXX, and let them know that that particularly transaction was erroneous and they should not approve the transfer. XXXX then told me they could not see any transaction as of that point and for me to wait until they can see the transaction. I called Wise again on XXXX and was told that they'd try to contact the wrong recipient and that I should wait another 15 days and there's no guarantee that I'd get my money back! At this point, I asked them why the transaction was able to go through when the entire name and address of the intended recipient did not match with the one they sent the money to, and all they said was it was for other purposes. There are no warnings or disclaimers that are visible at time of transfer that state " your money will go through regardless of names or address of the intended recipient ''. All they could provide me through numerous emails was that they tried to reach out to the recipient by email and that they have not returned the money. I contacted my bank on XXXX as I knew at that point that Wise was not taking the appropriate steps to help me and asked my bank to intervene. I told my bank that the money was sent to the wrong recipient and asked them to pull back the money. As I do not know who that person is or have any business with them. XXXX was able to cancel the payment since it was still a pending transaction from my account. I was really happy that they came to my rescue. Fast forward to now, I've been getting constant emails from Wise asking me to pay back the money because my bank had canceled the erroneous transfer and asked me to pay them since they already sent the money to the other person ( the wrong recipient ). I told them since they failed to do enough security checks and sent the money without any safety measures or protection for me, it is their responsibility to recover that money. They told me I have to pay them and recover the money by taking legal steps against the wrong recipient that refused to return the money. I do not know anything about this person, and at this point, it is not my money that is in their bank account, it is Wise 's money, and they should be able to take further legal actions if this person refuses to return the money that does not belong to them. However, Wise is refusing to listen and be reasonable and keep harassing me with constant emails threatening to send me to collection and further legal actions against me. I am in desperate need of help from the bureau to intervene as this is unacceptable business practice.