Venmo is a simple way to send money to friends, family, and even the person who runs your office fantasy football league. But what if you get a Venmo message saying you received money from someone you don’t know? It’s probably not a mistake or good luck: it’s likely a scam.
Scammers often send money “by accident” and then, sounding sorry and a bit desperate, they ask for it back. This scam happens on Venmo and other payment apps like Zelle, PayPal, or Apple Pay. It takes advantage of people’s kindness and trust.
How does the scam of sending money “by accident” work?
According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), scammers use stolen credit cards from the dark web and link them to their favorite payment apps.
They send money to random people by “accident” and then ask for it back, claiming it was a mistake. Later, they replace the stolen credit cards with their own cards in the app, and wait for people to send them clean (non-stolen) money.
If you send money back, you’re actually sending your own money, not the same $500 from the stolen cards. Eventually, the payment apps find out about the stolen card because the real owners report them stolen. The stolen money will be taken out of your account, leaving you $500 short while the scammer gains $500.
Unlike credit cards, many digital payment apps don’t cover fraud losses. That responsibility falls on you. According to the Los Angeles Times, most of this scamming process is automated, allowing scammers to make a lot of money with little effort.
What should you do and not do if someone sends you money by “accident”?
Never send money back to someone you don’t know on any payment app. Only send money back if it’s to a friend or family member, or if your payment app has fraud protection like PayPal’s Goods and Services.
If someone really made a mistake, they can talk to the payment app to fix it. Keep the money in your account because it might be removed later.
You don’t need to worry about your account being hacked just because someone sent you money or asked you for money. What you can do is contact your payment app’s support team. They can help reverse the payment safely without any risk of a scam.
Here are tips from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) on how to keep safe from scams on payment apps:
- Use money transfer apps only with friends: Keep yourself safe from scams by using money transfer apps just to send money to people you actually know.
- If someone sends you money by mistake, ask them to cancel it: The person who sent the money can ask the app to cancel the transaction. If they don’t want to cancel, it might be a scam.
- Turn on extra security settings: Look in your account settings to see if you can add more security, like multi-factor authentication, a PIN, or fingerprint recognition.
- Link your app to a credit card: For more protection, link your money transfer app to a credit card. This helps protect you if you don’t get what you paid for. Linking to a debit card or directly to your bank account doesn’t offer this extra protection.
What should you do if you have sent money to a scammer?
If you have accidentally sent money to a scammer, it’s usually hard to get it back. But if you used a credit card with your payment app, you might have a chance. Contact your bank and tell them about the fraudulent transaction. They should be able to help you.