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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 9, 2023 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: accidental payment, payment app ( 17 ), Scams ( 1,224 ), venmo ( 26 )   

  Venmo issues its own warning about scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  As you may know, Venmo is a personal payment app, with the emphasis on personal. It’s intended to be used between friends and family to send money quickly and effortlessly. It’s not supposed to be used between strangers, but this hasn’t prevented scammers from using it as an avenue of taking money from their victims. Scammers often use Venmo because once a victim pays a scammer, the scammer can quickly block the victim, preventing any kind of refund.

  Venmo itself recently issued a warning to not only its customers, but the general public about a scam that’s been plaguing its users. In this scam, a Venmo user receives a payment from someone they don’t know. The stranger then messages the user and claims the payment was sent by mistake. Then the user is asked to make a payment back to the stranger.

  These ‘accidental’ payments are often made by scammers using stolen credit or debit cards. If a user pays back the stranger, once the initial payment is found to be fraudulent, that payment is revoked. However, the user’s payment to the scammer is not. This gives the scammer free money and leaves the victim with much less money in their account.

  Venmo stated, if you receive a payment from a stranger, do not pay them back. Instead, a customer should contact Venmo through the app to have the payment reverse the payment. Users should also block anyone who sends them unsolicited payments.

  Another way to protect your Venmo account is by changing your payment feed to private. It is set to public by default, which means anyone can see your Venmo history.

  For more information about Venmo scams, you can use their online help center.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on September 8, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: accidental deposit, accidental payment, Cash App ( 41 ), deposit scam, overpayment scam ( 9 ), payment app ( 17 ), Scams ( 1,224 ), venmo ( 26 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  There’s nothing accidental about these payments 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Last week, we posted about a scam that was affecting Venmo users. In that scam, scammers were posing as friends of the Venmo account holder and asking for money. But what do you do if a stranger sends you money that you didn’t ask for and does it through a payment app? The Better Business Bureau has issued a warning about an accidental payment scam that’s been affecting users of payment apps like Zelle, Venmo, Cash App and others.

  In what’s being called the accidental payment or accidental deposit scam, the victim receives a substantial payment from someone they don’t know. That payment is then followed up by a message from the person who sent the money, saying they sent that payment accidentally, and could you please send it back? Whatever you do at this point, do not send the money back like you would a regular payment.

  According to the BBB, the money that was sent to you was done using a stolen credit card. If you send the money back like a regular payment, you’ll be responsible for that money once it’s discovered the credit card is stolen.

  Instead, you should tell the sender to cancel the payment, which can be done on most of the popular payment apps. If they refuse or try to pressure you into sending it back, it’s more than likely a scam. Also, don’t spend the money that you receive from the scammer, or you’ll be held liable for that money.

  While many of the scammers are finding their victims randomly, others are finding them through social media. In order to prevent receiving phony payments like this, it’s best to keep your account names off of social media. While you may think it’s just a quick post between friends, it can be picked up quickly by scam artists.