The Better Business Bureau is warning Venmo users about scammers coming after their money.
The BBB you will receive a Venmo notification telling you that you've received a payment from someone you don't know. That notification might be followed by another one, but this time from the sender. The scammer will claim they sent the payment to the wrong account by mistake.
They will then ask you to send the same amount back to them so that things balance out.
But here's the catch - once you send the payment through the app, they will cancel their original payment -- meaning you've sent them money and got nothing in return.
The scammer gets to keep their money, and because you don’t receive a notification about the transaction being canceled, they now have your money, too.
The BBB said the scammers usually don't ask for large amounts of money.
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How to avoid the scam
If someone reaches out to you claiming to have sent you money on Venmo by accident, you can reply with the following information and let Venmo take care of the rest.
“Open the Venmo app. If you sent money to an email address or phone number that is not associated with a Venmo account, you can cancel the transaction. ... Tap the ≡ icon. ... Select “Incomplete”. ... Tap “Payments”. ... Tap “Cancel” beneath the payment.”
The BBB said if the person claiming they made a mistake refuses to use this information, they are probably trying to scam you. At that point, refuse any more contact with them.
Venmo has built-in fail-safes for users if they accidentally send money to the wrong person, which means anyone asking you to send money back to them to cancel out an incorrect payment is likely trying to scam you, according to the BBB.
If you encounter someone attempting to scam you via Venmo, file a report with BBB ScamTracker and contact Venmo support.
