06.11.2025 13:41
Professor Dr. Behçet Yalın Özkara, a faculty member at Eskişehir Osmangazi University, noticed and returned 2 million 313 thousand 962 Turkish liras that he accidentally sent to the bank's investment account. Özkara stated that he reported the mistake when the bank did not notice it, saying, "That money did not belong to me. The fundamental purpose of life should not be money."
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Eskişehir Osmangazi University (ESOGÜ) Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Business Department Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Behçet Yalın Özkara returned 2 million 313 thousand 962 lira 17 kuruş, which was mistakenly sent to his investment account by the bank after his transactions.
HE WAITED FOR A CORRECTION BUT...
After making some stock and fund buying and selling transactions, an additional 2 million 313 thousand 962 lira 17 kuruş was mistakenly transferred to Prof. Dr. Özkara's investment account by the bank he uses. Noticing the situation and waiting for a while for it to be corrected, Özkara contacted the bank's customer service representative when there was no development regarding the error. In his conversation with the bank's customer service unit, Özkara explained the situation and requested the correction of the error. Upon Özkara's application, bank officials corrected the erroneous transaction in the account and retrieved the 2 million 313 thousand 962 lira 17 kuruş.
"THERE WAS A CONFUSION IN THE SYSTEM"
Behçet Yalın Özkara told AA reporter that there is a certain time for the money that should be transferred to the account after investment transactions are made in banking. Explaining that he buys and sells stocks and funds, Özkara said: "That money is normally waiting in the system. It goes to your account after 2 days. If you make direct purchases and sales, those sales are executed from the waiting place. I guess there was a confusion in the system, thinking that I did not make a purchase after making the sale, even though I did not make a purchase. Suddenly, there was much more money in my account than there should have been. An extra amount of around 2 million 313 thousand lira was transferred to my account."
"I WILL ALSO RETURN THE INTEREST"
Özkara stated that he thought the bank would notice the situation within 2-3 days and could call him, but no one reached out to him. Later, he expressed that he invested the money in daily interest, saying, "Nothing happened there either. I started earning daily interest. I also mentioned that to the bank. Of course, we will return that interest as well. Again, nothing happened. Finally, I called the bank. I said, 'Look, such a mistake has been made.'
"MY ACCOUNT WAS BLOCKED"
Prof. Dr. Özkara emphasized that the situation was met with surprise when he informed the bank officials. He mentioned that he was kept on the phone for a while after speaking with customer service, and continued: "They called back and blocked my account. Later, it was Friday. Since the weekend intervened, I called a department that deals with investment accounts on Monday. I asked about the situation again. They said, 'We did not make a mistake. You withdrew the money too quickly.' I kept the money for 5 days. Because I know something else might happen tomorrow. The banking system can blame you too. Since the person there was not aware of it, I did not prolong it too much. After all, their money is not my money."
"THE MAIN PURPOSE OF LIFE SHOULD NOT BE MONEY"
Özkara expressed that after the situation of returning the money to the bank arose, there were people around him saying, "Why didn't you return it, or the bank would definitely notice." He concluded his words by saying: "I don't think the bank will notice this mistake very much. I don't see this as something like 'I did a very great honesty.' After all, the bank finds it and takes the money. They would upset me a lot. The main purpose of life should actually not be money. It is not right to structure life based on the idea that we can achieve happiness through money. Especially for people raised in average families like us, money definitely brings happiness to a certain point, but it does not provide infinite happiness. Therefore, even if that money were with me, my life would not be more enjoyable."
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