May you be fortunate to never accidentally Zelle the wrong person money, and, if you do, may you be fortunate to get it back, because there are certainly people out there who will take the money they’ve received in error and act like they were entitled to it all along.
This is unfortunately what happened to TikToker @smarttomatocutie, who only realized her mistake after she received a message from her landlord that she hadn’t paid her bills for two months.
“I’ve been paying my bills on the first every single month,” the tenant said before checking her banking details and seeing that the “number” she was Zelle-ing the money to was wrong, not her landlord’s.
@smarttomatocutie #zellegirl #kennesawstateuniversity #helpme #paymyrent #honesthardwork #find #AbigailCuttle #moraldilemma #tiktok #slueth #makethisviral ♬ original sound – Smarttomatocutie
She said she contacted her bank to inform it of the situation, hoping it could help her retrieve her money. She said the associate on the phone didn’t seem too confident this would be a possibility, stating she was going to “put in a request” on the TikToker’s behalf.
She said she also found out the name of the person she sent the money to through the worker. “So I decided to text her, call her, everything. I even sent a request for the money back. Which is not a small amount. But she declined it and hasn’t responded to any of my text messages or any of my phone calls,” the TikToker said.
“So, the sleuth that I am, I went, and you know, Googled her, Googled her name, looked her up on Facebook, looked her up on Instagram, looked her up on TikTok, and yeah, I found her,” the TikToker added. “And you know what else I found? I found her sister. I found her brother. I found her mom, and I found her dad. You know what her dad does? Architecture. … He has a website with a number on it.”
The TikToker then calls the number on the father’s website to let him know what happened.
It rings several times, but no one answers. She added that she is not trying to get the young woman in trouble; she is just trying to “pay her rent.”
In a follow-up video, @smarttomatocutie provided an update on the situation, stating she hasn’t received a response from any of the people she contacted regarding the accidental payment, adding that she even offered the young woman an option to put the repayment back on a “payment plan.”
She said she intends of being a “little bit of a villain” in a quest to get her money back from the young woman.
@smarttomatocutie When does the Hero become the Villain? ##zellegirl##kennesawstateuniversity##helpme##paymyrent##moraldilemma##villain##vs##hero##justice##petty##disneyvillain##pleasejusttextme##viral##viralvideo##viraltiktok ♬ original sound – Smarttomatocutie
The clip then transitioned to her showing a private investigator’s website that she reached out to to help with the issue, stating that her next step would be to take the issue to small claims court. @smarttomatoecutie added that she has a friend who works at the court, and that friend is going to assist her in filing out the necessary paperwork.
A number of commenters applauded the way @smarttomatocutie is handling the situation, with one person writing, “All y’all commenting it’s her fault what if it was your rent money I bet you wouldn’t just leave it alone girl do all you can to get your money back.”
Another assured the TikToker that she is not the bad guy in this situation, despite her saying that she was entering her villain mode. “She took your money and didn’t even question it… for TWO months. That’s a lot of money you’re not the villian,” they told her.
However, there are some folks, like this commenter, who thought that the way she was handling the situation was entirely out of line. “Your approach to your error sucks ….. did you offer her anything? She didn’t scam you, Be prepared to not get it back,” they said.
“So you are trying to put her family and her dad’s job on blast because you f*cked up,” another questioned in a comment under her first video.
“Zelle asks you to confirm the recipient before money is transferred. Sorry but you f*cked up, not her or her family,” another said.
The Daily Dot reached out to Zelle via email and @smarttomatocutie via TikTok comment for further information.