I read this article in the LA times the other day about how this guy received $500 from someone he didn’t know via Venmo.
Turns out it’s a scam. The Better Business Bureau has a warning about this “money sent by accident” scam! How the scam works…
The scammer steals credit card numbers — which can be purchased in bulk on the dark web — and attaches those cards to accounts on digital wallet apps like Venmo, Cashapp and Zelle.
Then, they “accidentally” send money to hundreds or thousands of people at once, whose phone numbers were similarly acquired in some back-alley of the internet.
A subsequent request to get the money back goes out to all the targets. Some of those people will ignore it, but others will send the money back. And since the $500 was from someone else’s credit card in the first place…it’s just free money for the scammer.
So, if this happens to you, don’t do anything! Don’t send any money back…ignore their message…but also don’t spend it. That money isn’t yours…and it will likely get removed from your account at some point. You can also contact Venmo Support and eventually, Venmo will remove it.
Still so crazy, these scams have come to this!
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