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  Geebo 9:00 am on November 8, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, Chime ( 2 ), customer service ( 49 ), online banking, Scams ( 1,227 )   

  Online-only banks vulnerable to familiar scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Online-only banks can be a boon to many. They give those who are underserved by traditional banks a place to safely keep their money. They can be a great tool for those in lower-income households, or those in rural areas who don’t live close enough to a traditional bank. Unfortunately, these banks and more importantly their customers, are still vulnerable to a scam that’s been mostly affecting traditional bank customers.

  Chime is an online-only bank that many people use. They offer lower fees than traditional banks, and customers’ money is still insured by the FDIC. Recently, a Chime customer received a phone call from someone claiming to be a Chime representative. They told her that there was possible fraudulent activity on her account. She was then given instructions on how to protect her money from being stolen from her account. In actuality, the representative was a scammer who was directing her money to a scammer’s account. The scammer ended up taking $1400 of the customer’s money, her entire paycheck.

  If this sounds a lot like the Zelle scam, you’d be correct in thinking so. While Chime does not use Zelle, it does have its own platform for sending money to friends and family. This can be exploited in the same way that Zelle has been in the past year or so.

  In this instance, Chime seems to act more like a traditional bank, as they refused to refund the victim her money. Many of the banks that use Zelle have refused refunds to victims, stating that since the victim initiated the transaction, even under false pretenses, they’re not eligible for refunds.

  Whether the bank is traditional or not, if someone calls you and tells you that you need to move your money to another account to protect it, they’re scamming you. If you receive one of these calls, hang up and call your bank at their customer service number listed on their website, or your debit card.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on September 23, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: authorization code ( 7 ), bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), security code, Zelle ( 62 )   

  Man loses $7500 in new Zelle scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Next month, it will be a year since we started posting about Zelle scams. In that time, it doesn’t seem like much has been done on Zelle’s side to protect its users from scams. However, the scammers seem to have adapted the Zelle scam to continue stealing from their victims.

  For those who may be new readers, Zelle is a personal payment app that’s co-owned by some of the country’s biggest banks. It’s a competitor to apps like Venmo and Cash App. Zelle us only supposed to be used between family and friends and is not intended to be used for business purposes.

  In the previous version of the scam, scammers would send victims a text message posing as their bank’s fraud department. The text asks the victim if they recently made a large purchase and text back either yes or no. Once the victim texts back, that lets the scammers know that there is someone at that phone number.

  That text message is then followed up with a phone call to the victim. Still posing as the bank’s fraud department, the scammers tell the victim that their bank account has been compromised. The victim is then told that in order to protect the money in their account, the money needs to be ‘moved’. Instructions are given to the victim on how to move the money, but what’s really happening is the scammers are walking the victim through a procedure where their money is given to the scammers through Zelle.

  In the new Zelle scam, instead of walking the victim through instructions on transferring the money through Zelle, the scammers are now hijacking the victim’s Zelle account. The scammers do this by asking the victim for a security code that the scammers say they need for security purposes. What the scammers are actually doing is triggering a password rest on the victim’s Zelle account. The security code is needed to complete the password change. Giving the security code to scammers is essentially handing over your Zelle account to them.

  This recently happened to a man in Arizona who received an email about a fraudulent charge. When he called the number on the email to dispute the charge, he was told to pay himself the charge amount through Zelle to reverse the fraudulent charge. However, the ‘bank’ needed the security code to complete the transaction. This is being referred to as the ‘pay yourself scam’. After the scammers hijacked the man’s account, they took $7500 from him.

  Zelle has released a video on how to prevent yourself from becoming a victim of this scam, as you can see below. But are they really doing enough to educate bank customers on how Zelle can be used to scam them. Part of the problem is that many of the banks that use Zelle make Zelle part of their own app. Many customers aren’t even aware that they have Zelle or how to use it. In some cases, Zelle can be used to access a bank account, whether that customer wants it to happen or not. Zelle needs to better educate and protect their customers before their name becomes synonymous with scams, if it hasn’t already.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on August 31, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: 2FA ( 11 ), bank fraud, Bank of America ( 11 ), bank scam ( 64 ), customer service ( 49 ), customer support ( 23 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), two factor authentication ( 17 )   

  Victim loses $40K in bank scam 

  

  By Greg Collier

  A man from the Central Valley region of California recently lost close to $40,000 in a bank scam. As far as we can tell, Zelle wasn’t even used, which is a rarity these days. The man received a phone call from someone claiming to be from the fraud department at Bank of America. The caller is said to have told the man that there were fraudulent transactions on his account. But before the ‘fraud department’ could help him, they said they needed the man to give them a six-digit code they were sending to him, so he could verify his identity.

  The man gave the caller the code, and we’ll get to the importance of that in just a bit. The caller then told the man that since there was fraudulent activity on his account, they needed to shut down the online banking option on his account. The caller was actually a scammer who drained the man’s account of nearly $40,000 with several transactions.

  The most disturbing part of this scam is that the scammer already had the victim’s personal information. The victim didn’t have to give the caller any information, as the scammer was able to give the man’s personal information to him. The scammer even disabled the notifications the man should have received when the scammer started taking large amounts out of the man’s account.

  So how was the scammer able to access the man’s bank account? The news article doesn’t go into detail about that. However, if we were to hazard a guess, it seems like the scammer already had all the information needed to access the man’s account. The information could have been obtained through any number of data breaches that have happened in the past few years.

  The only thing the scammer really needed to access the account was the authorization code. Many banks require their customers secure their account using a two-factor authentication code. So even if someone tries to log in to a bank account with the username and password, they’ll still need the 2FA code that’s typically sent to the customer’s text messages. Once the scammer was able to obtain that code, they had complete access to the man’s bank account.

  Anytime you receive a phone call from your bank, especially about fraudulent activity, hang up and call the bank back using the number on the back of your debit card. Scammers almost always spoof the number they’re calling from. Also, never give anyone any authorization code over the phone. These codes aren’t just used for banking, either, as many online accounts can be hijacked if someone were to give this number out.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on August 24, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), customer support ( 23 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), US Bank ( 3 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  Zelle says they’re just the messenger when it comes to scams 

  

  By Greg Collier

  As you may know, Zelle is the personal payment app that’s consistently been used in various scams for the past year. Zelle’s parent company is also co-owned by the nation’s leading banks, who consistently look for reasons to deny assistance to scam victims. Although it’s entirely within their right to do so, it’s also bad PR. At what point will the platform itself need to step in since its customers are constantly being taken advantage of?

  For example, a man from the Kansas City area recently fell victim to the classic Zelle scam. It’s a shame we can call it the classic Zelle scam, but here’s how it works. A victim will receive a text message that appears to come from their bank. The text asks if a large purchase or transaction has been made lately and asks the recipient to respond yes or no. Once the recipient of the text responds no, the scam really begins.

  The victim will then receive a phone call that spoofs their bank’s phone number. The scammer, posing as the bank’s fraud department, will tell the victim their bank account has been compromised. Under the guise of protecting the victim’s account, they’ll be walked through a Zelle transaction that’s actually sending the money to the scammer’s bank account.

  The Kansas City man lost $2500 to the scammers. He attempted to contact his bank, in this case U.S. Bank, to try to get his money back. So far, the bank has refused. Even after going to his local media, the bank has still refused a refund. When the local media contacted Zelle about it, they were told that Zelle is essentially a messaging service when it comes to these transactions and scam victims will have to work through their banks. U.S. Bank is one of the banks that co-owns Zelle’s parent company.

  Reactions like this should get bank customers to uninstall the Zelle app, but too many banks have Zelle baked in to their own app. This, in turn, makes a large number of bank customers vulnerable to scams just so the banks can push Zelle on them, since the banks are tired of losing business to other payment apps like Venmo and Cash App. Essentially, if you want to use your bank’s regular app, you’re forced to deal withe vulnerabilities of Zelle. It’s almost like the banks are holding their customers hostage.

  To better protect your bank account, keep in mind that Zelle is only supposed to be used between friends and family. Your bank will never ask you to use Zelle if your account has been compromised. If you receive one of these phone calls, hang up and contact your bank directly at the phone number on the back of your debit card.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on August 3, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), PNC Bank ( 3 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), US Bank ( 3 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  How Zelle scammers wear down their victims 

  

  By Greg Collier

  As expected, the Zelle scam is still ongoing. For a brief recap, scammers are calling their victims pretending to be a bank fraud department. The scammers tell their victim that there’s been fraudulent activity on their account. The victim is instructed to move their money through the Zelle app to protect it. But what’s really going on is the scammers are directing the victims to transfer their money to the scammers.

  Just today, we found two reports of bank customers falling for the Zelle scam. However, both of these reports give us a good look into how scammers convince their victims to give up their money.

  A woman from New Jersey is a customer of PNC Bank, one of the banks that co-owns the Zelle app. She received a call from scammers posing as PNC Bank’s fraud department. The caller was said to sound professional and told the woman there had been a $1000 Zelle, transfer to a man in Texas she didn’t know. The caller even knew the woman’s name, address and phone number. She was told to use the Zelle app to perform a $1000 reversal.

  The woman started to think the call was suspicious and started asking for additional identifying information from the caller, such as her date of birth or account number. The caller insisted the call was legitimate and time was running out on stopping the phony transaction. The caller refused when she asked to speak with a supervisor. She even said she was going to call PNC directly, but was told she would just be directed back to the fraud department. Then the caller tried to say there was another $5000 charge that just came through. When she started asking more questions, the caller said PNV would call her back tomorrow and hung up.

  A man from Colorado fell victim to a similar scam when he received a call that appeared to come from U.S. Bank’s fraud department. U.S. Bank is also a co-owner of Zelle. That caller had a large amount of the man’s information, including his name, address, and the last four digits of his bank account. Again, that caller sounded professional, and the man heard computer typing in the background like they were really handling a fraudulent activity on his account. He was also instructed to move his money through Zelle, where he lost $1000. These scammers also tried to get more money out of the man, That’s when he hung up and called U.S. Bank directly to find out he’d been scammed.

  In both cases, neither bank would refund the victims their money, with both claiming they can’t do anything since this wasn’t the result of a banking mistake.

  Please keep in mind that scammers aren’t just some guy calling from a run down basement using a burner phone. Often, they’re run exactly like a legitimate business would be run. Don’t fall for phony professionalism.

  And remember, Zelle is only supposed to be used between friends. It’s not for bill paying or ‘protecting your money’. If you get a call like this, hang up and call your bank directly at the phone number on your debit card or from the bank’s website.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on July 26, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), impersonation scam ( 113 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  The Zelle scam is still around, in case you were wondering 

  

  By Greg Collier

  We’ve been posting about this particular Zelle scam since last October. That probably means the scam has been going on for at least a year. In case you need a reminder or haven’t heard of the Zelle scam, we’ll give you a refresher.

  Zelle is what’s known as a peer to peer payment app. Its closest competitor is Venmo and is supposed to be used in a similar way. Payments are only supposed to go to people you know personally. The most used example for apps like Zelle is splitting a check at a restaurant. Instead of everyone getting a separate check or trying to settle up with cash, you can electronically send your friend your portion of the bill. However, scammers have taken advantage of people through Zelle even if the victim doesn’t normally use the app.

  The most egregious of these scams is a bank impersonation scam. It starts when a potential victim of the scam receives a text message that appears to have come from their bank. The text message typically says something to the effect of, did you make a large purchase or did you transfer a large amount of money through Zelle? The victim is then asked to reply yes or no.

  When a victim replies no, they immediately receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from their bank’s fraud department. The phony customer service rep gives instructions to the victim to use Zelle to protect their account from being hacked. What’s really happening is the scammers are directing the victims to use Zelle to move money from the victim’s account to the scammers’ account.

  Recovery of lost money is often rare and difficult. Zelle offers little in the way of consumer protection when it comes to scams. The big banks that own Zelle say they can’t refund the victim their money since the victim ‘willingly’ moved the money, scam or not.

  Zelle has gotten a bad rap because of this scam over the past year, but it still seems like they’ve done very little in the way of trying to protect their users. With all the negative press, the scam still continues.

  Just recently, a woman from Texas lost $3000 to this scam. In her case, the scammers took $1000 a day for three days from her account through Zelle under the guise of helping her protect her account.

  The best way to prevent yourself from falling for this scam is to ignore the text message. Do not reply to it at all, or you will receive a call from the scammers. Scammers don’t actually know where you bank. They cast a wide net of text messages, hoping to get at least one person to respond. If you still have concerns about your bank account, call them directly at the customer service number on your debit card or your bank’s website.

  If you find yourself having fallen victim to this scam, file a police report. We have seen it reported that doing this will aid in recovering your money, but is not a guarantee.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on May 24, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), Chase ( 13 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  You don’t have to be scammed to lose money through Zelle 

  

  By Greg Collier

  We’ve been discussing the problems with Zelle for the better part of over six months now. When we started, we were bringing attention to a very specific scam that took place through the money transfer app. This was when the scammers pose as a victim’s bank and gets the victim to transfer money to the scammers through Zelle under the guise of protecting their bank account from hackers.

  Then, as the months passed, we started seeing more reports of Zelle being used in more and more scams. Where the scammers used to ask for money in gift cards, they were now telling their victims to use Zelle.

  To compound matters, the victims’ banks have largely been refusing to refund the victims’ money when lost in a Zelle scam. Then add to the fact that Zelle offers little to no protection to its users in general.

  More recently, we’ve come across a report from Florida where a man claims to have lost $9000 from his bank account through Zelle, and the man did not fall for a scam. The man claims that he was looking at his bank account and saw his money being transferred out of his account to someone he doesn’t even know.

  He called his bank, which was Chase Bank, and asked that they stop the Zelle transfers. He also requested to move money into a new account that was not attached to Zelle. According to reports, that new account was also hit for the sum of $4000 through Zelle. Chase Bank allegedly denied any refunds, stating that the transactions appeared to come from the man’s device.

  It’s unclear how the thieves were able to gain access to the man’s accounts. It almost sounds like a SIM Swapping attack, since the transactions looked like they were made by the victim. Or it could have been an old-fashioned phishing attack.

  However, the most disturbing part of this story is that if thieves can access a bank account through Zelle without the user noticing, a large portion of banking customers could be vulnerable. Zelle is attached to many of the most popular banking apps without many users even knowing.

  To make matters worse, there isn’t anything account holders can do proactively to prevent these losses through Zelle. If you lose money through Zelle either in a scam, or like the instance mentioned above, the only thing you can really do is file a police report and hope the bank deems you worthy enough to be given a refund.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 18, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: authorization code ( 7 ), bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), verification code ( 6 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  Is the Zelle scam getting more sophisticated? 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Previously, we have said that scams are almost like living organisms. They’re constantly evolving and changing as people start catching on to the original scam. However, a scam can bed tweaked just enough to find a whole new generation of victims. One of those scams that has evolved quickly in a short time is the Zelle scam.

  For those who may not know, Zelle is a payment app that works along the same lines as Venmo. The main difference between Zelle and Venmo is Zelle is co-owned by some of the country’s largest banks. Many of these banks’ apps have Zelle already built-in. For about the past six months, the Zelle scam has been one of the most reported scams in America.

  The Zelle scam 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.

  In the Salt Lake City-area of Utah, a new variation of this scam has been reported. In it, the scammers skip the text message and go straight to the phone call. A bank customer will be told they’re speaking with their bank’s fraud department and fraudulent activity has been spotted on the customer’s account. The scammers will even tell the customer their last few bank transactions. A made up transaction is added to that list to make it seem like there’s been a fraudulent charge to the customer’s account.

  At this point, the scammers will ask the customer if they want to sign up for a fraud notification service. If the customer says yes, they’ll be texted a security code. The scammers will then ask for that code to supposedly verify that they have the right phone number. The code is actually an authorization code to change the customer’s password. Once the scammers have the code, they lock the customer out of their own account and start transferring the funds to another account through Zelle. Since the Zelle app doesn’t have the same protections as something like a credit card, it has become increasingly difficult for scam victims to recover their lost money.

  If you receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from your bank, politely end the call and call your bank’s customer service department back at the correct customer service number. The number can usually be found on the back of your debit card or on the bank’s website. Don’t just do a Google search for the bank’s number, as that could lead you to an entirely different fake customer service department.

  Lastly, if you receive a text message or email with any kind of security code on it, do not give it to anyone. These codes are mostly used for password recovery or resetting a password. If you give the code to someone you don’t know, they could have access to your most sensitive accounts.

  Alvaro Urbaez (@urbaez22) is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    Alvaro Urbaez (@urbaez22) 8:59 am on April 20, 2022 Permalink

    I fell in another variation. I call it as the third party payment, and is very often in criptocurrencies portals like Binance or Coinbase.. Some one offers for your coins, but the payment via Zelle is sent by a third person, you verify the addition of the money to your account, so you release the coins; a few hours later, the owner of the other account (the third person) files a claim on their bank telling them they didn’t perform that payment; the bank will retain the funds on your account, and eventually will debit them in order to return them to that third person. So, you lose your money, and the scammer goes away with it, and the bank won’t even allow you to file a claim on that.. It happened to me with Bank of America. They have a serius security breach on that matter, and the responsible for the exploit was me, and like me there are lots of people affected..

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  Geebo 8:00 am on April 5, 2022 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: bank fraud, bank scam ( 64 ), customer service ( 49 ), Scams ( 1,227 ), Zelle ( 62 )   

  Is this the only way for Zelle scam victims to get their money back? 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The Zelle scam has been garnering headlines since at least last October and shows no signs of relenting. If this is the first you’re hearing about the Zelle scam, this is the scam where bad actors get you to transfer money through the Zelle app to the scammers under the guise of protecting your bank account.

  To further clarify, the way the scam works is the scammer will send you a text message that appears to come from your bank. The text message asks if you recently made a large purchase or transfer. You’re asked to reply YES or NO to the text message. If you reply to the text message, you’ll receive a call from the scammer posing as your bank’s fraud department. The scammer will tell you that to protect your money, it needs to be moved through Zelle. What the scammer is really doing is walking you through the directions on how to move your money from your account to the scammer’s account. The scam has become so prevalent that some scammers are even taunting their victims after taking their money.

  The banks who co-own Zelle have been inconsistent with whom they deem worthy enough to receive a refund. In the majority of instances, the banks tell scam victims since the victims authorized the transactions, the victims are out of luck. The Zelle platform offers little in the way of consumer protection.

  Those who do receive refunds from their banks seem to be those who go to their local media with their stories. It appears the banks are responding to bad press rather than customer concern. While the scammers are ultimately to blame for victims losing their money, there comes a time when a platform has to step up to protect their customers. So far, all that Zelle seems to be doing to protect its users is to wag their finger at the victims who have lost money through their app. How much bad press will it take before Zelle’s owners start implementing precautions to prevent these scams?

  If your bank uses Zelle, there are a few ways to protect yourself from this scam. The first is to not respond to text messages that appear to come from your bank. If there is an issue with your account, you’re always better off calling the customer service number on the back of your debit card. You can also visit your bank’s local branch during business hours. The best way to protect yourself is to keep in mind that payment apps like Zelle are only supposed to be used with people you know. If someone says you need to use one of these apps to protect your money, they’re more than likely a scammer.