Hundreds of Austrians accidentally get Trump's relief stimulus cheques for $1,200: 'We thought it was fraud'
In an incident that goes well with the tag "bizarre", hundreds of people have received American stimulus checks at banks in Austria in recent times! According to bank sources and media reports in the European nation, some of the recipients were puzzled by the unexpected payments or even being notified that they are not eligible for the payouts.
According to a report on ORF that came out on Monday, September 7, Austria’s public broadcaster said the country’s citizens received $1,200 coronavirus checks from the American government. At least 100 of the checks were recently deposited at two different banks in Austria, the report added.
Austrians thought it was a fraud scheme
Manfred Barnreiter, a 73-year-old pensioner who is among the recipients, told ORF that he first thought the check was part of a sophisticated fraud scheme but when he went to the bank to check it out, it was found to be "real" and three days later, the money had hit his account.
Barnreiter and his wife received $1,200 each even though neither of them is an American resident or holds American citizenship which is a key eligibility criterion. The man had worked in the US for a brief period in the 1960s and still gets a small pension from that period of the job. However, he said he had no idea why he qualified for the payment which was meant to help common Americans.
In August, NPR reported that thousands of foreigners who used to work in the US temporarily got the stimulus checks that the US government has distributed to bring relief to Americans who have been hit by the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Government officials told NPR that tax returns that have been filed improperly might have led to the accidental payments.
They also cautioned that cashing the checks despite not being eligible could lead to a change in visa status or difficulties in re-entering America. The payouts though account for a very small fraction of the first $2 trillion stimulus package. The checks have been part of the relief package. Prior to their distribution by the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Department asked Trump's name to be printed on them.
On Wednesday, September 9, several banks in Austria confirmed that they received queries from customers who were confused over the issue in recent weeks, the Washington Post reported. It cited Gerald Meissel, a senior official with Upper Austria's Sparkasse Bank, saying that many Austrians who recently returned from the US after working there as au pairs have received the checks as well.
"People initially thought it’s a treacherous form of fraud — but the checks were real," The Post quoted a spokeswoman for Austria's Oberbank as saying. The report also said that three local branches of banks in Austria said they had cashed about 200 American stimulus checks by Wednesday. None of the banks were, however, able to say how many checks were cashed by Austrians were likely to be ineligible for the US government payments.
Barnreiter told OEF that he was planning to return the money to the US once the travel restrictions were lifted. "Initially, I felt bad, thinking, 'Those poor Americans, maybe they need the money more urgently than we do here in Europe'." But when seen against the greater background, he said "it's peanuts".