Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is reissuing her consumer alert about payment apps and scams following reports nationwide of scammers targeting Venmo users. The scam involves a scammer “accidentally” sending money to consumers on the peer-to-peer (P2P) service and then asking for the money back.
The attorney general advises consumers to never send back the money; they should contact the P2P service about the error. Scammers often use stolen funds Venmo and other P2P services will eventually flag as fraudulent. A common version is when a scammer uses a stolen credit card number to deposit funds into a consumer’s P2P account. The real holder may succeed in getting that payment reversed as fraudulent; the consumer who returns the supposedly accidental deposit will experience a debit from the credit card company, and any transferred funds will come from the consumer’s P2P account balance. P2P scams can take many other forms, including:
• Scammers impersonate a consumer’s bank to alert them about “suspicious activity” on their account and direct them to send money to themselves or “the bank’s address” to reverse a transaction or to verify the account is not frozen.
• Fraudsters claim to represent a fraud department or merchant and ask people to confirm information such as bank account username and password, credit card or debit card data, or Social Security numbers.
• Scammers pose as a legitimate business requesting a P2P payment for a product or service.
• Scammers connect a stolen credit card to a payment app then look for people selling big ticket items online. Scammers offer to pay using the app. Once the seller accepts payment and sends the item, they’ll discover the payment sent is not to a legitimate buyer, and the money collected is removed from their account. The seller is without the item or the money.
• Fraudsters send spoofed emails warning an account is about to be suspended and account holder must enter password on a spoofed webpage.
Contact: Consumer Protection Team, Toll-free: 877-765-8388. Find online complaint form at https://secure.ag.state.mi.us/complaints/consumer.aspx.
The attorney general advises consumers to never send back the money; they should contact the P2P service about the error. Scammers often use stolen funds Venmo and other P2P services will eventually flag as fraudulent. A common version is when a scammer uses a stolen credit card number to deposit funds into a consumer’s P2P account. The real holder may succeed in getting that payment reversed as fraudulent; the consumer who returns the supposedly accidental deposit will experience a debit from the credit card company, and any transferred funds will come from the consumer’s P2P account balance. P2P scams can take many other forms, including:
• Scammers impersonate a consumer’s bank to alert them about “suspicious activity” on their account and direct them to send money to themselves or “the bank’s address” to reverse a transaction or to verify the account is not frozen.
• Fraudsters claim to represent a fraud department or merchant and ask people to confirm information such as bank account username and password, credit card or debit card data, or Social Security numbers.
• Scammers pose as a legitimate business requesting a P2P payment for a product or service.
• Scammers connect a stolen credit card to a payment app then look for people selling big ticket items online. Scammers offer to pay using the app. Once the seller accepts payment and sends the item, they’ll discover the payment sent is not to a legitimate buyer, and the money collected is removed from their account. The seller is without the item or the money.
• Fraudsters send spoofed emails warning an account is about to be suspended and account holder must enter password on a spoofed webpage.
Contact: Consumer Protection Team, Toll-free: 877-765-8388. Find online complaint form at https://secure.ag.state.mi.us/complaints/consumer.aspx.
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