How this US woman accidentally became a millionaire

  • 23/07/2018
How this US woman accidentally became a millionaire
Photo credit: Twitter/ Ellen Fleming

A Boston woman has shared the story of how she became an accidental millionaire for ten minutes after a transfer error.

Ellen Fleming received a voicemail last week from online broker TD Ameritrade telling her a deposit had been made to her account.

Ms Fleming, 26, had an account with the broker but it only had about $50 in it.

When she checked her account after the voicemail, she had $US 1.1 million.

"A bank account that I had $50 in had over $1 million dollars deposited into it. A banker made a HUGE mistake and confused me with another Ellen Fleming," Ms Fleming said on Twitter.

"I was rich for 10 mins & I can tell you, life was in fact better. I'm now humbled from losing all my money," she said.

After speaking to her mother, she alerted TD Ameritrade.

It turned out that the money was meant to go to another Ellen Fleming who lived in Florida, but an error meant it was given to the wrong person.

"You need to take every opportunity that's handed to you. But that seemed like an opportunity that could lead me to federal prison, so it didn't seem worth it," Ms Fleming told The Boston Globe.

A TD Ameritrade spokesperson told The Boston Globe that an "errant deposit temporarily inflated the balance of Ms. Fleming's account" but it was corrected after Ms Fleming got in contact.

"If rich Ellen Fleming wants to send a few bucks my way for my honesty, my venmo is open," Ms Fleming tweeted.

"Please make sure that in my obituary I am referred to as "One-time millionaire, Ellen Fleming."

Newshub.