Who Sent Me an Interac e-Transfer? Identify It Safely

To identify who sent an unexpected Interac e-Transfer, first open your bank or credit union through its known app or website and confirm whether money actually entered the account. Then preserve the sender name, amount, dates, status, message, and Interac reference number and compare them with expected customers, invoices, tenants, refunds, and other payment records.

The displayed sender name and reference are matching clues, not a public identity lookup. If the deposit is real but you still do not recognize it, leave it unmatched and contact the likely payer through details you already trust or ask the receiving financial institution how to investigate. Do not send a new e-Transfer to an unexpected claimant just because they say the payment was a mistake.

Did You Receive Money, a Request, or Only a Message?

The safest next step depends on what appears in known online banking—not on the email or text by itself.

Interac explains that email and text carry notifications while participating financial institutions transfer the funds. It also advises recipients of an unexpected notification to avoid responding or clicking links and to confirm the transaction through another channel.

Can You Find the Sender From an e-Transfer?

You can usually collect the sender information shown in your bank record or legitimate notification, but it may not identify the customer, tenant, or business purpose by itself. A displayed name can differ from your records because:

• a company owner paid from a personal account;
• a tenant's roommate, parent, employer, or support agency paid the rent;
• a customer's legal banking name differs from its trading name;
• an employee or bookkeeper paid on behalf of an organization; or
• a refund or reimbursement came from a name you did not expect.

Preserve the displayed name exactly. Add a separate field for the customer, tenant, invoice, property, or purpose after you verify the relationship. Do not overwrite the original payer name with the name you expected to see.

Interac creates a unique reference number for each e-Transfer. Use it to distinguish payments with the same amount or sender, but do not treat it as an invoice number or proof of identity. There is no public Interac page where you can enter a reference and reveal a sender. Transaction-specific support belongs with the participating financial institution.

How Do You Identify an Unknown Sender Safely?

1. Verify the transfer outside the message

Open the financial institution independently. Confirm the receiving account, amount, date, direction, and status. If nothing matches, treat the notification as suspicious and do not use its link.

Interac accepts suspected phishing reports at phishing@interac.ca. Get Cyber Safe also recommends going directly to the official website or app instead of following an unsolicited link. Use the fake e-Transfer email checklist if the message itself is in doubt.

2. Capture the matching clues before contacting anyone

Create an unmatched row and record:

• amount and currency;
• notification, initiated, and deposited dates when available;
• sender's displayed name and contact route shown;
• received, sent, or Request Money direction;
• current and final status;
• Interac reference number;
• receiving account and inbox;
• optional message or memo; and
• possible customer, invoice, tenant, property, or purpose.

Keep the legitimate notification and bank entry. Avoid recording only the amount: the useful match comes from the combination of name, date, reference, status, account, and business context.

3. Compare the payment with amounts you expected

Check open and recently paid invoices, partial balances, customer deposits, rent rolls, supplier credits, refunds, reimbursements, owner contributions, loans, and transfers between related accounts.

Do not match on amount alone. A common rent amount or round invoice total may fit several obligations. Compare the displayed payer, date, amount, reference, message, expected balance, project, and property together.

For client receipts, follow the freelancer payment workflow. For rent, use the landlord and property-manager workflow.

4. Search the notification history

Search every relevant inbox by sender name, amount, approximate date, and reference. Look for sent, reminder, Autodeposit, deposit, cancellation, decline, or expiry messages. Several messages can describe one payment, so group them before counting the transaction.

If you need older evidence, the old e-Transfer history guide explains how to combine bank history, statements, email, and source documents.

5. Contact a likely payer through a trusted route

Use a phone number, client portal, lease record, existing email thread, or contact saved before the unexpected transfer. Do not rely on new details supplied only by the payment message or an unsolicited claimant.

Ask for non-sensitive facts that establish the match: the amount, approximate date, invoice, rental period, and whether someone paid on the person's behalf. Never ask for a banking password, security answer, one-time code, full account number, or identity number.

Record who confirmed the payment, when they confirmed it, and what obligation it covers.

6. Leave unresolved money unmatched and call the bank

If the sender remains unknown, the evidence conflicts, someone disputes the deposit, or fraud is possible, contact the receiving financial institution through an official channel. Interac says account and transaction issues must be reported to the institution for investigation and resolution.

Keep the amount outside a customer or tenant balance until its purpose is supported. Document the bank's instructions, case number, and any later status change, return, or resolution.

Should You Send Back an Unknown e-Transfer?

Do not create a fresh e-Transfer solely on instructions from an unexpected email, text, call, or social-media message. A new payment can go to a different contact from the original sender and creates a second transaction that is separate from the deposit you received.

Contact the financial institution that holds the receiving account and ask how it wants the mistaken-payment claim handled. Keep the original deposit identifiable and avoid spending or allocating it while the matter is unresolved. If the institution processes or authorizes an outcome, link that outcome to the original reference instead of deleting the first record.

This is a risk-control workflow, not a conclusion that every mistaken-payment claim is fraudulent. The institution can review account information that a recipient or software tool cannot see.

How Should an Unknown Deposit Be Recorded?

Do not label the amount as sales, rent, a loan, or another final category merely to clear the reconciliation. Use an unmatched-payment or suspense category under the business's bookkeeping process. Once the source and purpose are supported, reclassify it while preserving the original payer, reference, evidence checked, and correction history.

The CRA requires business records to be reliable and supported by source documents. Ask a qualified bookkeeper or accountant how a material unresolved amount should appear at a reporting date; the e-Transfer method does not determine its accounting or tax treatment.

Which Unknown-Payment Cases Need Extra Care?

• Autodeposit completed before you recognized the name: verify the account and purpose; automatic deposit does not classify the payment.
• A third party paid for someone else: retain both the displayed payer and the person whose balance was credited.
• Several invoices match the amount: leave the payment unmatched until another fact distinguishes it.
• One transfer covers several invoices or rent periods: keep one payment and document allocations that total the original amount.
• The claimant pressures you to act immediately: stop using that contact route and speak to the financial institution independently.
• The transfer appears only in email: treat it as unconfirmed until known banking shows the corresponding transaction.

How Can TransferLog Help Match an Unknown e-Transfer?

TransferLog organizes details found in supported incoming and outgoing Interac e-Transfer notification emails from connected Gmail, Outlook, and iCloud inboxes. You can search and filter by person, date, amount, direction, status, reference, category, and connected inbox, then export CSV or PDF on the Pro plan.

Use that list to group related messages and create an unmatched-payment review list. Then verify the bank deposit and connect it to the correct invoice, rent roll, agreement, and trusted contact.

TransferLog does not access bank accounts, reveal an identity beyond notification details, trace funds, decide whether a message is genuine, or return a mistaken payment.

Official Sources

• Interac: how e-Transfer works and how to handle an unexpected notification
• Interac e-Transfer Help Topics: reference numbers and transfer status
• Interac FAQ: contact your financial institution for transaction issues
• Interac: report suspected phishing
• Get Cyber Safe: protecting against e-Transfer fraud
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada: resolving an unauthorized transaction
• CRA: responsibilities for business records

Organize supported unknown e-Transfer notifications with TransferLog. Start free, then verify each payment against your bank and business records.