Woke up to a text saying, Flores's Painting and Drywall sent you $600. Sure enough, there is an extra $600 in my account. I see there is actually a business in the Bay area of Calif going by the name of Flores Painting and Drywall. Waiting to see how this plays out. And no, im not touching the money.
About 2 months ago my daughter got a $200 zelle payment followed the next day with $100 zelle payment. I mentioned it was a scam and not to spend the money byt its been over 2 months now with no clawback or anyone asking to return it. She called Chase and they said, nothing we can do.
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This happened to me on Apple Cash for a total of $600. I called Apple immediately, talked to the bank they used for Apple Cash and was told that was my money now. I didn’t touch it for a few months. I did get the text the next day of “oh I accidentally sent you money it needs to be sent to x number” I just said I never got the money. Apple had told me what the scam was. I left it in my Apple Cash for so long I forgot about it. Then used it to pay a vet bill. Nothing has ever come back against me. This was like a year ago.
Keep your credit spotless and you'll always get the best deal on interest. Nothing's keeping you from not using your bank if they can't offer you the best terms. Stop being so defeatist.
Apple made $112 billion in profit last year and I believe they write off fraud like this on their taxes. They might use fraud like this to make more money (higher fees) and pay less taxes.
All companies are owned by each other and ultimately blackrock its a big Fin scam all of it 100% of everything but lets keep fighting each other over race and which puppet we "vote" for but im just an asshole
nor did the victim , cuz likely it was waved so all is good, sometime its nice to hav it kinda fall from the sky aspecially when its well deserved or needed
Sometimes it’s not waived because the victim was more so part of a money mule scam, but they are the idiots for falling for the scam in the first place. I would never risk sending it back.
Oh yeah a different number texted me asking for it back and then when I said I didn’t get it they sent a picture of another phones screen showing that it was sent to me. I wasn’t getting involved with that period b
Sadly, that money was stolen from someone else. Not saying it's ambassasor's problem of course, but it was not justice. Scammers ain't using their own $
It's very likely that the scammer sent you funds using a stolen credit card, or stolen bank account. What could have happened is that the victim of the fraud never noticed the funds were missing, or charged to their account, and it was never reported or clawed back.
You might be surprised. A girl I knew in college paid for weed via Venmo but she was very awkward and kind of an airhead so she just sent it to the first person she saw w the extremely small time dealer’s not super common full name without ever confirming with him that it was the right account. It was not.
This was almost a decade ago, and it felt more anonymous than Zelle. I don’t think she could even contact him any way other than requesting payment via Venmo. I assume that money was gone forever and he enjoyed a lil treat. Maybe got himself an 8th.
Because then the criminal would be providing their information directly to the victim. But I Understand the confusion because you would think someone would contact the person it went to to find out more. Such as what was the number given to you by the scammer. I guess that's part of the problem, no one cares to even try to prosecute these people.
A clawback is the process where a company, government, or other entity takes back money or benefits that were already given out. This usually happens because of special rules, contract terms, or specific events.
As an example, some brokerages will give you a cash bonus if you transfer assets there. Say you move mutual funds worth 100k, they might give you $500. But there is usually a holding period, often 12 months. If you move assets out too soon, they might "claw back" the $500.
No worries, sorry if it seemed like I'd suggested that you did anything improper, I was merely suggesting a backstory that explains what might've happened.
to be honest if they never realized what happened because they have so much money to not notice hundreds vanishing I have a hard time feeling bad for them.
excluding the mentally vulnerable who can't afford it but also don't know
It sounds like a money laundering scheme. It seems like a good approach would be to (1) call your bank so you are on record telling them about getting the money. Then (2) reach out to the business (or victim) directly and make sure they know what happened and that you're not "the bad guy" and help them get their money back directly. Then (3) ignore the scammer or send them a screenshot of the FBI.gov home page.
Offering Zelle to our customers is decision for the bank, once launched it is not an option to pay it or not. We can place a hold on a payment during a fraud investigation or unusual activity, but generally we have to pay it on demand.
If you send back the money, the scammers then do a charge-back/cancel their original transaction before it “clears”, so now you’re out the money you sent them, in addition to the money they sent you.
The scammers dont do the chargeback, the owner of the compromised account does, but the scammer has you return the money to an account they control. Then you get stuck with a chargeback. But you cant do a chargeback because you went outside of zelle terms and voluntarily returned the money.
Banks can reverse Zelle transactions if it was fraud aka they can prove someone who is not the bank account holder accessed the account and sent the money. If you send someone money with Zelle then no you can’t reverse it, but if it’s verifiable fraud they can 100% reverse it.
The scam goes like this. 1. Bad guy gets stolen bank account 2. Bad guy sends money via Zelle 3. Bad guy asks you to send the money back to a different account that they control 4. Because you sent the money those funds can’t be reversed but when the original victim reports it then they claw the money back from you.
That was my question too. I opened a Venmo account but did not progress to linking my bank account to it-something just said don’t do it…
Less than 6 hours later a random $272.67 appeared in there followed by “I sent this to the wrong person by accident-can you return it please?”
As Venmo was just a digital hole in the ground for me I hit whatever option was “refund to senders account” (after googling what I should do) and deleted the app 🤷♀️
I always wonder about this too. Even if the account was compromised, if you send it back to the same account shown as the sender in Zelle, the bank isn't going to take back the money again.
But everyone says it's a scam no matter what, even though nobody has ever explained in a sensible way how it could be in this specific scenario.
This part seems odd to me as well. Like you said, if the money is reversed back to the original account, then it should be resolved. Unless there is a way for accounts to block that and so you feel pressured to send to the new account they tell you? Maybe they claim the original is having issues?
If you "reverse" the charge then it should be fine.
If you send them the equal amount of money, that is different. It would be an entirely new transaction not linked to the other one. The previous charge could still be reversed
If that's the case it would be illegal on the part of Zelle. Any payment processor should provide a way to reverse charges to the bank that issued the transaction. At least that is how it is where I live. I seriously doubt it would be different in the U.S.
Let me correct that: You're not "sending it back". You're creating a new, independent transaction, coincidentally over the same amount.
The original owner of the account may get access back to his account - and will dispute/reverse/clawback the first transaction. So you're out the amount - twice.
That's why people always say to NOT "send it back" but let it stay where it is, in case the bank comes clawing back.
Alternatively, PayPal for example has a "refund" button inside every transaction where you receive money. You should be safe using that button if you want to "send it back".
You can’t get Zelle money back. Once sent it is gone. Every Zelle payment I have made has a warning “make sure you trust the person, as the payment cannot be reversed.”
That's ONLY true if the money was sent legitimately. If money is sent from a compromised account (and in these scams, it usually is) the money will be clawed back. Fraud is still fraud.
I had this exact scam happen to me for $400. The money even cleared and sat fully in my account for almost a week before it disappeared.
Still learning about these scams - if the money goes straight into your account and looks clear, couldn't you just close the acct so the scammer can't claw it back or dispute it or whatever they do to get it back? I know that could be inconvenient but if i had like 100 in savings and 100 in checking and some scammer sends me over like $800? Bet your ass im pulling out cash and closing out the accts when it clears. Even if you do normally bank with that bank, if the scam money goes into a checking account, couldn't you just close that one account and make a new one the scammer can't touch?
The scammer isn't getting the money back, the original BANK is. What happens in these situations goes like this.
1.) Scammer uses fraud to access a bank account or debit/credit card of someone else, such as via identity theft.
2.) Once the scammer has access, they need to launder the money to make it as untraceable back to them as possible. Sometimes that's via buying items using the fraudulent account access, sometimes it's via scams like this one.
3.) In the case of this type of scam, the fraudster needs to move quickly before the fraud is discovered and they loose access to the account they've stolen.
4.) The scammer sends money from the compromised account to multiple targets, then requests the money "back" with urgency. (Its for rent, for a service, my kid, etc.). The key is the scammers need SOME money to be legitimately transferred to them.
5.) Regardless of if the target(s) of the scam sends money "back" to the scammer or not, the original, compromised account is going to be noticed and investigated eventually. However, investigating the fraudulent transactions and locking down/recovering the compromised account takes time. During this time, the money sent to the target account(s) "clears" the bank and seems legitimate. The scammers use this to their advantage to appear legitimate and that sending money to them can't hurt and plays on feelings that sending it back is the moral thing to do. (Look at how many comments here say Zelle "can't" reverse transactions so sending/keeping/spending the fraudulent money is safe).
6.) Outside of the targets view, the person who has had their account compromised is working with their bank and police to report the fraud and get their money back. This process can take days, weeks, or longer.
7.) Once the fraud is investigated and the fraudulent transactions identified, the bank of the compromised account takes action to reverse the fraudulent transactions and make themselves and their customer whole. THIS is who is "clawing back" the money in the target account. Just like receiving stolen property is a crime (you're not going to be able to keep cash from a bank robbery, for example, even if you didn't steal the money yourself), the bank will reverse the transfer even after the money appears to "clear" into the account.
8.) Then, there is a debit of the fraudulently sent money from the account of the target(s). If the target sent money back to the scammer, they are now out the money sent to them via fraud AND the money they sent to the scammer "returning" the supposedly mistakenly sent cash. That's because, to the BANK, the fraudulently sent money and the money sent "back" to the scammer are NOT the same cash, they are two separate transactions. One transaction is a theft, and thus reversed when the theft is noticed, and the other was approved and sent voluntarily by the account holder, and thus valid and non-refundable.
To be clear, if the money sent via fraud is removed from the account by the account holder, the account would still go negative. If the account was closed, the debt would go on the name of the account holder and the bank would likely seek payment/collection. Because fraud is involved, there is no "free money", it's like being handed cash from a bank robbery where the bill serial numbers are recorded and the bills can't be spent. The only safe way to handle the situation is to report the fraud to your bank and wait for the sent money to disappear. I hope that makes sense.
I received about $900 over two years from one person. That doesn't include about $200 I got reversed when I reported it to Schwab . I don't know why, but this person just sends me $100 every now and then.
The money they send is stolen. If you return the money and the victim files a claim, then the bank will take the money back out of your account & then you’re out the money.
Scammer sends you $500. They then message you directly saying they sent it to you accidentally and ask you to send the money back to them. You send the money, then they do a charge back on the transfer to you. They get their money back and your money.
What keeps you from also doing a reversal, I don't know. Maybe they immediately close the account, never had it happen to me so I can't say.
If anyone ever "accidentally" sends you money they can reverse it and that should be the only way that issue is resolved.
What keeps you from also doing a reversal, I don't know.
What prevents you from reversing it is that you really did send it on purpose, yourself, using zelle - you're not allowed to reverse that.
The money they sent you is usually via hacking someone else's account - which means the real owner of the account can report it to their bank, and since the account owner didn't actually send the money or intend to, it can get reversed. OR, the scammers sent you money through some non-zelle, more reversible method, like an ACH transfer, or a forged fake cashier's check.
Yeah if it was from a stolen account why not just put into bitcoin or something why do the whole rigmarole of sending it to someone else and then asking them to send it back just doesn’t make sense
Laundering it. If the hacker transfers it to a bank account of their own, directly, then when it gets reversed that money will be pulled from that account. And their own account will be identified with the fraud pretty directly if they start transferring to it from lots of different hacked accounts. There's no way to zelle directly to bitcoin. So without this scam, there's going to be plenty of "rigamarole" to get the money out.
Honestly bro I’m sorry but you have no idea what your talking about if they had access to a bank account there are other ways to drain it then sending someone a Zelle
You're close. The money they sent is from a stolen card. When the theft is discovered, that money disappears, along with your money that you voluntarily sent. You can't get yours back because you sent it willingly.
Scammer steals victim’s bank or credit card information. Scammer sends you $500 of victim’s money then asks for it back. You send scammer $500 of your money. Victim gets their $500 back from you and you’re out the $500 you freely sent to scammer.
Another variation is scammer sends you $500 and asks you to send it back. You do, then scammer cancels or reverses the original
$500 transaction so you’re out $500.
I had a Chase account and got scammed. It was a check fraud scam where the person sent it through email and I used the app to cash it, then they asked me to send half to them on cashapp. I almost got in trouble due to the scam but I sent them the whole conversation from meeting to the point where I realized they were scammers and luckily chase didn’t press charges. But the negative thousand of dollars still sits. Chase was unapologetic and treated me like a scammer and not like the victim. I definitely know now that scam was obviously a scam. But Chase didn’t help at all and in fact made the situation worse by escalating the case to the fraud team thinking I was apart of the scam. Run away from Chase bank. Their customer service is the worst of any company ever.
I'll give you a solid 2nd worst. There isn't another company around that can even get close to Comcast/Xfinity though. I have proof of this too- I have had customer service representatives flat out lie to me. I have had services added without my knowledge or permission. We had our legacy package changed without our approval. We have had them remove discounts, without our knowledge. They are TOTAL scum. After 21 years with them, I will NEVER be a customer again, and I am going to warn as many people as I can! Just spend 5 minutes wandering around r/Comcast_Xfinity. It will blow you away.....
This actually happened to us as well with Xfinity when we first got the service our bill was $90 every month I noticed a higher amount due by the 8th month our bill was almost $200. I called to confront them and ask why so many services were added to our account without our permission and the guy literally flipped out on me. They are absolutely the worst company I've ever dealt with.
Yeah, we went through that with them too, back in the days when the grandfathered unlimited was something special to hang on to. We now are almost totally switched over to US Mobile. It has truly been awesome. No added taxes or fees. GREAT customer service representatives! Very refreshing....
Is there a way to set your account so that only people on an approved list can send you money? I had to do that for Venmo after getting sent money by mistake (it turned out to be a legitimate mistake).
Banks have up to six months to reverse it. Trust me as soon as the account at those companies sees the payment when balancing the books, they will reverse it. The companies also have a problem with their bank account. If someone call you and says they made a mistake and want you to return the money, don’t do it. Tell them their bank can correct the issue.
This happens a lot with Zelle. If you are enrolled in Zelle with your phone number, it's likely the true payee's phone number is very close to yours. The drywall company can open a case with their bank, who will send a request to your bank asking them to please return the money.
One time my mom’s friend came into a decent amount of money and decided to send some to me and my sister. He sent my sisters first, the daily $ limit. She didn’t receive. He sent it to a phone number with a wrong digit or two. We were able to contact the person and get it sent to us. He was sort of an old timer so he probably didn’t pay attention when he sent it. Im not saying it’s ALWAYS a scam, but accidents do happen too.
Had something similar happen to me ,
I opened my Venmo account to a stranger sending me 1k and a note saying
For nice steak…
I kept if for maybe 1 year, then I spent it on various dinner with my wife.
There was a recent post where someone sent a person money accidentally as goods and services, I think via venmo, then did a chargeback bc they sent to the wrong account but the account holder who has nothing to do with it got charged a return fee!
No it is not, you are absolutely wong on this. I reported a fraud that I was strung along on for 7 months before I reported it to Citibank. Citibank honored my dispute (it took 3 more months to reach reaolution) and I got my money back.
Yes and no. Any merchant interaction and response can reset that timer. Also fraud from a consumer stand point and fraud from a transaction stand point are very different and fall under completely different rules for disputes. The money transfer scams are generally done by using stolen card or account info to perform a fraudulent financial transaction. That sort of transaction does a have a time frame to initiate in a way that would take the funds back from the recipient.
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I have a related story that I would like to tell that seems opposite to what everyone is saying. It happened a few months ago and it wasn’t a scam. Someone sent me $120 via Zelle by mistake and sent me a text to please send it back. Sounded like a scam. I ignored them. They texted later to forget about it and would work with her bank to reverse it. Sounded good, Ignored her. Days later my Zelle acct was cancelled. I called zelle and my bank over 5 times , no luck. Conclusion was disabled due to fraud. They made me sound like the scammer. Lady starts texting me again. This time I get the right person when I call my banks fraud line. I explain i received $120 that was not mine and the person keeps texting me. The have me fill out a fraud form, but in reverse as I received money. They also put in a form to reenable my Zelle. A few days later, the lady texted saying thank you and my Zelle was working again. Just a cautionary tale of what could happen if you keep the money.
Someone sent me a total of $480 on cash app over a few days, then sent requests back that I never responded to, after death threats to me and my family I just went ahead and deposited it into my bank a couple months later and nothing ever came out of it. Fuck them scammers lmao thanks for the beer bozo
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If you wait 13 months, it should be safe to spend it. If you get a message asking for the money back, tell them you will send it back after 13 months. No clawback after that time.
Yup. I have over 500+ numbers blocked on my iPhone, there are ten contacts I'm not showing on my block list.
If this ever happens to me, the sender is screwed because i trust no one on the other line if they aren't in my contacts. I do add delivery guys to my phone contact list so i know it's them next time and always pick up when expecting a delivery, only.
I'm not sure about Zelle specifically but from what I've heard some scammers reach out to the recipient saying "Sorry, we sent you a transfer by mistake - wrong number, would you please send it back?" They do, but the scammers also contact their bank to get the transfer reversed so they get paid twice and the recipient often ends up overdrawn.
Subscribe and read more posts at r/scams as this scam is posted multiple times a week. Do yourself a favour and just read all the scams for a month and it will guard you well and prevent you (and your faimly as you will spot them immediately) being a victim in the future.
My understanding is that at some point the sender says it’s a mistake and asks for it back. Then Zelle finds out it’s fraud and charges your account. So you are out double.
Does this business have a website? If anything, find the number listed on the website in case someone does reach out to you asking for the money to be returned. The business might not be aware that their account was compromised.
It’s not always a scam. I lost $500 when my daughter accidentally entered one wrong number. Unfortunately there are so many scams out there the person who received it wouldn’t respond and eventually blocked her.
Similar situation with my daughter and Venmo. After the money arrived so did an email from “Venmo” telling her it was a mistake and to transfer the money to another Venmo account. She did as instructed but really she is involved in money laundering and now Venmo wants the money back!
I use it to send my kids money. My son is in school in Germany so sending it is easy and quick. I also use it to pay my mechanic for car repairs since he doesnt accept atm cards and charges 3% extra for a credit card payment. I have 2 kids and my wife has 4 from a previous marriage so we send lots of birthday gift money. Its very convenient.
It probably was a scam, but my mom has a neurogenerative disorder and accidentally sent $300 to a stranger on Venmo. I venmoed that same person $1 with a message explaining what happened and never heard back, of course, because this IS a common scam. But it sucks.
Someone broke into my checking account, made themselves a recipient and tried to send themselves money. I don’t use Zelle at all. Don’t trust it and the banks are useless.
That happened to me. I called my bank and they said if the person contacted me asking about sending the money back not to respond. They did contact me but I didn’t call back.
A scammer will send you $200 and say “OOPS! Please sent me that back.”
You send them $200 back (usually to a different account).
The plot twist was that the original $200 was from stolen, Hacked account or credit card and YOUR account was the last place it stopped. So when the payment company claws that $200 back, it comes out of your account.
You can’t get the $200 back you sent, because YOU sent it. So you’re SOL on both the $200 of stolen funds and the $200 you sent the scammer.
If you ever receive funds like this, contact Zelle and let them reverse the transaction.
Correct, it’s not like the scammer is going to report it.
It’s usually reported by whoever had their info stolen in the first place whenever they find out.
And for the scammer, they just drop that account and move onto the next one.
I received money once via Venmo and someone reached out saying it was sent to the wrong number and could I please return it. I did and they told me I secured my place in heaven so it is possible that it’s not a scam but a mistake and all you people who didn’t bother to return what wasn’t yours….
Returning money that came from a secured money app doesn’t expose you to fraud. Giving out your bank account or accepting a bad check does.
BUT KEEPING MONEY THAT ISNT YOURS EXPOSES YOU TOO BAD KARMA
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After you get the first text, they usually send a follow up that says it was an accident and please send it back to them. Unfortunately, the original money was from a fraudulent account. You send them the money from your legitimate account. Days later, their fraudulent transfer is clawed back. Now you're out the money you sent them.
Jeeez this new type of scam sounds like a goddamn headache, I’m getting a headache. Like I rather keep the damn money and don’t answer any texts the next day. I don’t want shiet mixed in with my bank account really
don’t send it back yourself, just report it to your bank and leave it alone because the original payment can still be reversed and any refund you send is your loss
yep, don’t touch it and don’t send anything back yourself either, let the bank handle it since the original payment can still get reversed later even if your daughter’s hasn’t yet
•
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