Greg's Corner

Zelle scam shows no signs of stopping

By Greg Collier

It’s been a few weeks since we last talked about the ongoing scams taking place through the Zelle banking app. If this is the first you’re hearing about it, these scams have been going on since at least this past fall. It starts when you get a text message that appears to come from your bank. The text message asks if you’ve recently made a large purchase or payment. You’re then asked to reply either yes or no to the text message. When you reply to the text message, your reply will be followed up with a phone call from scammers posing as your bank’s fraud department. The scammers will walk you through a process on the Zelle app that the scammers say will protect your account from any fraudulent activity. What’s really going on is the scammers are instructing you on how to put your money in the scammer’s account.

The city of Charlotte, North Carolina, recently saw a dramatic increase in this scam. At least eight victims contacted the local ABC News affiliate saying they had been scammed through Zelle. Now, that may not seem like a lot of people being scammed, but you have to keep a couple of things in mind. The first is that not everyone who is scammed comes forward. Many people are too embarrassed to come forward after being scammed. This is why no one should ever be criticized for falling for one of these scams. The other thing is, scammers only need to find a handful of victims to make the scam profitable.

For example, one of the victims who came forward in Charlotte said they lost $3500 to the scammers. Let’s just say that each of the victims lost a comparable amount. That’s $28,000 that a scammer potentially made in two weeks.

If you receive a text message from your bank asking about a transaction, do not reply to it. Instead, call your bank’s customer service number on the back of your debit card or on the bank’s website. If you’ve lost money to this scam, it’s recommended that you file a police report right away before contacting your bank. This is not a guarantee you’ll get your money back, but in some instances it has helped. Lastly, if you use Zelle, think about opening a separate account with your bank that only has a small amount in it for Zelle transactions. That way if a scammer does get access to your Zelle the loss will be at a minimum.