A British man tracked down the owner of a lost wallet by sending a series of one penny bank transfers with embedded messages explaining that he had found the item.
In a viral tweet that has picked up more than 125,000 likes, Tim Cameron, a product manager at fintech TransferWise, explained how a Good Samaritan on Monday reunited him with his property.
Cameron lost the wallet containing his bank cards and ID while cycling home from his office in London. After an unsuccessful hunt for the item, he logged into his online banking account and spotted four Faster Payments transfers of one penny each.
Each transaction contained a message in the 18 character reference box, informing Cameron: "HI, I FOUND YOUR/ WALLET IN THE ROAD/ [PHONE NUMBER]/ TEXT OR CALL!"
Cameron called the Good Samaritan, Simon Byford and was reunited with his wallet within 90 minutes of losing it. He handed Byford a bottle of red wine but has not yet paid back the four pennies.
Byford told the Evening Standard: "It was right in the middle of the road and a few cars had run over it. I stopped to pick it up then I tried to find him on Facebook but Tim Cameron is such a common name I didn’t have any luck, so I cycled home.
“I had a little think about what information I had and I had his bank cards. It’s an odd way of getting in touch but it was like trying to work out a puzzle, which I liked. I had a little bit of information about him but not enough."