Zelle, Venmo, ApplePay, PayPal, Square Cash & PopMoney (also known as Peer-to-Peer or P2P Payment Services) are convenient methods of sending money quickly and safely from a credit card or bank account. Nearly 113 million Americans use these services. Although these services are fairly safe, they also have been used in scams. Unlike a credit card, sending money through Zelle only requires you to enter a name, phone number, or email address for the recipient to send them money. People committing this type of fraud have been seeking information through phishing emails, text messages or telephone calls to get victims to provide their personal information.
You may receive a call telling you that someone mistakenly used Zelle or another service to send you money that was intended for someone else. The person will ask you to return the funds. They may have put money into your account through a stolen credit card number or hacked bank account number, which you might see when you check your account. This scam is complicated. The person committing the fraud connects stolen credit card information, substituting your information for theirs so that when you send money back, you’re sending it to a different credit card and laundering money. You will end up losing money in the end.
