A Reddit user says a person sent them $700 through Zelle by “accident” and then proceeded to threaten them with police action if they didn’t return it. Users say there’s a good reason for them to ignore the messages.
Reddit user @Artistic-Contest-312 posted to r/personalfinance about the issue on Nov. 25. “Hey guys, so I received around $700 in Zelle today and they keep bombarding my phone with calls and texts to return the ‘mistakenly’ sent money,” writes @Artistic-Contest-312.
@Artistic-Contest-312 continues, “I only said to contact their bank and request a cancellation. He then by text was threatening me by ‘pressing charges’ and contacting police and sent me my address and said that he’ll have the police come by.”
@Artistic-Contest-312 says they didn’t believe the person, but they were concerned by the person having their address. “I called my bank and they literally said, ‘It’s now yours, just keep it.’ So what’s the correct way of handling this?” they ask.
How to handle Zelle scammers
According to Regions Bank, you should be highly skeptical if an anonymous person “accidentally” sends you money on a payment app. “Beware—it might be a payment app scam,” the blog post reads.
How does the scam work? Well, the bank says, a scammer creates a Zelle account linked to a stolen credit card and uses the app to send payments to other accounts. The scammer then reaches out to the people who received the money and asks for the money back.
“The sender then replaces the stolen card on the app [with] a personal card, to which the recipient’s payment is applied,” the blog post reads. “Later, the owner of the stolen card may dispute the fraudulent payment, causing the funds to be pulled from the recipient’s account. In that case, the recipient becomes the victim.”
According to LifeLock by Norton, scammers employ several variations of the Zelle scam, but it hinges on their ability to use the platform to send and receive money quickly.
Importantly, Zelle warns users on its website that you may not be able to recover stolen funds if you authorized the payment. That is why scammers use intimidation tactics to get victims to send funds voluntarily (although admittedly under duress) without thinking too hard about it.
Viewer suggestions
The overwhelming consensus on the thread is that this is a Zelle scam. One of the top commenters on the Reddit thread wrote, “Block any numbers they contact you from. Don’t spend the money for when the bank eventually reverses their fraudulent send.”
A second user explained further. “Block the caller, don’t touch the money,” they wrote. “In all likelihood, it will be clawed back once your bank figures out the scammer stole it. That’s how the scam works. The scammer sends you ‘bad’ money (that later gets clawed back from you) and hope you send them your good money, which you never see again, leaving you out both the bad money and the good money.”
Another commenter wrote, “I really hate that they said it’s theirs to keep. It’s only theirs if it was a legitimate transaction. But whoever told them that can’t determine that. I’d have the bank put it in writing and sign that I am not responsible for what happens to that $700 and then I’d still not do anything with it.”
And someone else addressed how the scammer obtained the OP’s address. “A frequent scam to create a sense of panic and urgency,” they wrote. “Addresses can be found via public records in the USA. Whatever happens, don’t return anything.”
A Zelle user recently experienced a similar situation that ended in her account getting flagged for fraud.
The Daily Dot reached out to @Artistic-Contest-312 via Reddit comment and to Zelle via email for comment.
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