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  Geebo 8:00 am on October 22, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bank of America ( 11 ), bank scam ( 72 ), Chase ( 14 ), payment app ( 18 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), text messaging ( 36 ), text scam, Zelle ( 67 )   

  Zelle scam keeps making victims out of bank customers 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Reports are still coming in about the scam that uses the Zelle payment app to drain victims’ bank accounts. In case you’ve missed our previous posts about the scam, scammers are posing as nationwide banks while sending text messages to victims asking them if they’ve made a large purchase. When the victim replies back, they’re then called by the scammers posing as the bank’s fraud department. The scammers tell the victim that someone is fraudulently using their account. The victim is then instructed to make a transfer through Zelle to ‘protect’ their account. Instead, the scammers are directing the money to their own accounts.

  Bank of America has taken the brunt of the criticism in this story, since it seems mostly B of A customers who have been affected. The bank has been seemingly resistant to either issue refunds or recover their customers’ money. Many times they’ve only done so after scam victims have contacted their local media. The scam has become so prevalent across the country that even the New York media is warning consumers about the scam.

  However, it’s not just Bank of America that is seeing their customers get taken for a ride. A number of Chase Bank customers have also reported falling victim to the scam. Recently, an Ohio woman lost $13,000 to the scam, and she was a Chase customer. As of the time of this writing, Chase has not commented on whether or not the woman will be getting her money back.

  The company that runs Zelle is jointly owned by is owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, Navy Federal Credit Union, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, Ally, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. There are other banks that also use Zelle even though they don’t hold ownership in it.

  If your bank uses Zelle and you receive one of these scam texts, do not reply to it. Instead, call your bank’s customer service number from the back of your debit or credit card. That way, you know you’re talking to a legitimate customer service representative. They’ll be able to tell you if there is any real fraudulent activity on your account.

   

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  Geebo 8:01 am on October 18, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Bank of America ( 11 ), payment app ( 18 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), text scam, Zelle ( 67 )   

  Zelle scam victims may be entitled to get their money back 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The Zelle scam has been finding a lot of victims around the country. We originally posted about it here. The scam is largely affecting Bank of America customers, although we’ve also seen it affect Chase customers. In theory, it could affect any bank’s customers whether that bank uses The payment app or not.

  The scam works with the scammers posing as a bank. In this case, Bank of America, mostly. The scammers will text countless people at random. They only need to have a handful of people to fall victim to the scam to make it profitable. The text message will appear to have come from B of A asking if you’ve made a substantially large purchase lately. Within the text, you’ll be asked to reply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you made such a purchase. If someone replies to the text, the text is followed up by a phone call from someone posing as a customer service rep from the bank telling you that someone has accessed your account. The victim will be then instructed to move the money in their account to a ‘safe place’ through Zelle, with the claim that this will keep their money safe. What’s really going on is that you’re transferring your money to a scammer’s account, and they make off with your money.

  For the most part, victims can’t get their money back. Zelle offers no protections for this, and the banks usually tell scam victims that there’s nothing they can do. Sometimes victims do get their money back after speaking with their local media. However, it seems more like the banks are doing this for PR reasons rather than any kind of responsibility to the customer.

  That may be changing, as a little-known federal law known as Regulation E states that banks are supposed to refund customers if the customer is the victim of a fraudulent transaction on their account. That includes when a third party tricks a victim into sharing account information. However, it does not protect the customer if the customer uses Zelle knowingly to buy something online and never receives that purchase. But for this scam, victims should be able to get refunds, theoretically. Whether the banks will try to prevent these refunds remains to be seen.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on October 13, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: driver's license ( 2 ), florida ( 30 ), Scams ( 1,386 ), text messaging ( 36 ), text scam, vaccine passport   

  No, you can’t get your vaccination status on your license 

  

  By Greg Collier

  Most of us know about the icons on our drivers licenses that indicate whether or not the license holder is an organ donor. In many states, it’s a small heart in one of the corners of the license. In others, it just says ‘organ donor’ listed somewhere on the card. Regardless if you’re a donor or not, we’ve all come to accept these indicators on our drivers licenses. Maybe because of that acceptance, scammers think that we’ll fall for another indicator on our licenses that indicate a more modern status.

  The state of Florida is warning its residents about a text messaging scam where the impostors are posing as the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The text message claims that you can have your vaccination status added to your driver’s license. With the discussion of so-called vaccine passports, this might seem like a reasonable service. Many entertainment and sports venues are requiring proof of vaccination before attending, so wouldn’t it be convenient to just have it marked on your license? In reality, the state of Florida is offering no such service.

  As with most texting scams, the message contains a link that the scammers want you to click on, If you do, you’re taken to a website that looks like it belongs to the Florida DMV. You’ll then be asked for such personal information as your Social Security number, your driver’s license number, and you’ll even be asked to upload a photo of your license. This scam is an identity thief’s dream.

  There are a couple of things to keep in mind to protect yourself from scams like this. The first is to never click on a link in a text from someone you don’t know. Often they’ll take you to risky websites or inject your device with malware. The other thing to keep in mind is that government agencies never use text messaging to announce new services.