For student Sibongile Mani, who had been attending the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in South Africa, this no longer became a theoretical scenario.

$798,000 at the time of writing.

The money had been deposited by accident, but Mani decided to make the most of it and went on a huge shopping spree.

She would go on to spend on expensive liquors, designer clothes, and the latest iPhone.

In the end she spent the equivalent of around $40,000 of the money before she was found out.

Mani was caught after she left a bank receipt behind at the supermarket.

Samkelo Mqhayi, branch secretary of the South African Students Congress, told Herald Live at the time: “She was just suddenly spending so much. Her supermarket receipt which was leaked showed she had 13.6m rand in her account and she had been throwing parties for her friends and showering them with gifts without worry.”

Mani spent hundreds of dollars a day (Facebook)

The student was reported to the police and arrested in 2017 and charged with fraud and theft.

In 2022 she was sentenced to five years in prison, which her lawyer appealed on the grounds that she was not a danger to society and had not sought out the money she had received.

In 2023 her five-year sentence was suspended on the condition that she committed no fraud or theft in that period.

While she was given community service and ordered to undergo counselling, she was not ordered to pay back the money she spent.

So, what should you actually do if you suddenly find that there’s a huge and unexpected amount of money in your account?

If a large amount of money unexpectedly lands in your account, do not spend it (Phil Ashley / Getty)

Well, according to financial advisor Bev Shackleton, this is unlikely to happen to begin with and if it does happen, then you must inform your bank as soon as possible.

There’s an extremely important reason for this – you don’t know where those funds have come from, and it might be dirty money.

She said: “You don’t want to be in the situation where someone is fraudulently using your account to launder money.

So there you have it, if you find a large and unexpected amount of money in your account, tell the bank and absolutely do not spend it.

Omar and Halla Jaraki had purchased the land worth $1 million in Concord back in 1991.

In August they had called at the town to pick up their annual tax bill, only to be informed that the property had been sold for around half of what it was worth.

It was at this point that the terrified couple realised that they had been targeted by a scam.

This had seen someone impersonate them and put the land up ‘for sale’ so that an unsuspecting buyer would purchase the land from them.

Speaking to CBS, cardiologist Omar said: “They stole our dream. They stole our property. They took a mortgage on it. They’re building a house on it.”

The couple found that someone had built a house on their land (CBS)

The couple would go on to file a fraud lawsuit in which they claim that a scammer had used a fake driver’s licence, passport, and a forged email address to carry out the scam.

This involved duping a real estate agent and two attorneys into putting the property up ‘for sale’.

The plot was allegedly advertised as ‘a great opportunity to build your dream home in the ultra-exclusive, sought after and prestigious Mattison Farm neighborhood. One of the only remaining lots and nestled on a 1.84 acre parcel. Close proximity to Concord & Nashawtuc Country Club’.

Unfortunately, a buyer did take up the offer on the plot, which was advertised well below its $1 million value at $699,900.

The unwitting buyer then built a house on the land.

The house had been erected on their land (CBS)

Richard Vetstein, an attorney representing the couple, said: “The minute I saw this deed, I knew it was a forgery. You just can tell by looking at it. Just the handwriting, it looks off. There were so many other red flags.

“A quick half a million for a counterfeit driver’s license and passport and sending a couple of emails. That’s a day’s work.”

One red flag was that the photos on the fake passport and driving licence were the same.

Vetstein said: “That’s not possible because license photos are taken at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The woman in the fake ID’s looks nothing like Halla Jaraki.

“This is a disaster. It’s not only for us but for other people like it’s going to happen to them.”

He added: “They’re definitely going to get their property back. I think the only question is, what do we do about the house?”

In 2008, Chris Willson found a historic cruise ship for sale on Craigslist and decided that he was going to restore it and turn it into a museum.

The Utah native even ended up living on the vessel and kept it moored in the California Delta during the restoration process.

The ship was initially named Wappen von Hamburg some decades ago and was actually the first significant passenger liner to come out of Germany following World War II, but the project was doomed from the start.

The entrepreneur told CNN: “I think we had 10 areas solidly restored and refurnished meticulously. These were kind of major areas. So we were pretty proud of that.”

The Aurora was bought in 2008 (Facebook/ Christopher Willson)

Chris estimated that he spent over $1 million on the restoration himself, as well as accepting small donations.

But he had to let it go, and sold it for around $20 to a volunteer who was a mechanic.

After a military tugboat that had been sat alongside Aurora sank, it sparked a ‘pollution issue’, Chris decided to sell the ship as he couldn’t justify the ‘million dollars worth’ it could cost to relocate.

“We absolutely loved our time with that ship. [Selling it] was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life,” he said at the time. “It haunts me and I lose sleep over it. I’m not happy about it.”

After 15 years of hard work, it went on to suffer an even greater loss.

A hole in the ship.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office shared that Aurora had begun ‘sinking’.

The post stated: “It has been determined the ship has suffered a hole and is taking on water and is currently leaking diesel fuel and oil into the Delta Waterway.

“Our Boating Safety Unit and ground units are currently on scene coordinating efforts to contain the spill.”

He lived in the boat during the restoration process (Christopher Willson)

According to the news, contractors tossed everything on Aurora into trash bins and it’s unclear who the latest owner is.

But despite the tragedy, Chris doesn’t ‘regret’ it.

He told Business Insider: “The whole project morphed into something really cool for a long time. The knowledge I gained from that ship is quite impressive. I would have stayed out there and been part of that boat forever.

“I’m pretty sad about the whole situation, but I believe things happen for a reason. Although I don’t regret a single minute of my time on it, I knew I needed to leave before I started to feel regret.

“It was time to move on and start another project.”

This year he explained how he was offered a 300-foot sailboat, but he thinks he’ll ‘stay on land for a while’.

He said: “I’m now looking for something like a theater or perhaps an old church to be my next project — something historically significant with some character.”

With Elon Musk at the helm, Twitter hasn’t exactly been sailing smoothly.

While many have taken to the social media platform to complain about seemingly unnecessary changes, some have taken things a step further.

Twitter has been suspended since late August in the entire nation of Brazil for failing to comply with court orders related to hate speech moderation. It was also suspended due to failing to present a legal representative in the country, as required by law.

Twitter has been suspended in Brazil since late August (Chesnot/Getty Images)

Brazil represents one of the platform’s most coveted markets, so the company has been attempting to resolve the issue ever since.

According to a Reuters report, paying the fines is the only outstanding measure demanded by the courts in order to reauthorize Twitter in the country again.

On October 4, Twitter filed a fresh request to have its services restored in Brazil, saying it had paid all pending fines. However, someone made one hell of an error.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes responded to this request by asking that the payment to be transferred to the right bank.

Twitter filed a fresh request to have its services restored in Brazil… but they sent the fine money to the wrong bank account (Alex Pantling – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

The Justice also stated that once the fines are sorted, Brazil’s prosecutor general will give his opinion on the recent requests made by Twitter’s legal team in Brazil.

Moraes ruled that Twitter had paid its paid 28.6 million reais ($5.24 million) in fines to the wrong bank, and would therefore be postponing its decision.

Twitter’s legal team has denied this and said they paid the fines correctly. They also added that further input from the prosecutor general was unnecessary.

Twitter recently shut down its office in Brazil after its representative was threatened with arrest for failing to comply with court orders.

The company has also criticised the legal actions as ‘censorship’ and claimed they were unlawful under Brazilian law.

After the fines are made, Twitter should be able to be reinstated in the country (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images))

Musk himself, as well as the company have accused the judge of political bias as he had previously ordered those accounts spreading misinformation, mostly belonging to supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro, be blocked while under investigation.

This move also came with heavy penalties for Brazilians who attempted to circumvent the ban.

Anyone who was caught using a VPN (virtual private network) to access Twitter faced daily fines of nearly US $9,000, which is more than average annual income of many citizens.