They tell victims they will end up getting the money back. In the latest scam, imposters claiming to be from Bank of America, or other banks tell victims their accounts are being hacked, then persuade them to send money via Zelle to a safe account. The complaints to the CFPB named several banks and payment apps, including PayPal, which operates Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle, which is owned by seven large banks.

'It's totally unacceptable to let this happen and we need to take action,' Engstrom said. Consumers don't realize that the instantaneous transactions are not reversible, nor that they have fewer consumer protections when they use a payment app or service. 'However, the ease of opening peer-to-peer accounts, the ease of obtaining information about other users and a variety of ways to trick consumers have created new fraud risks to users. 'The peer-to-peer apps were originally marketed as a way for friends to split expenses,'' the PIRG report says. Public Interest Research Group - or PIRG - found complaints about payment apps doubled during the one year period ending this past April. RELATED: Victim of the Bank of America, Zelle scam? Here are your rightsĪ study by the national organization U.S. It's definitely a problem,' Jenn Engstrom, of California Public Interest Research Group, or CALPIRG, said. 'We have seen a lot of scammers using robocalls, robotexts and sometimes these payment apps used to scam people. If anything goes wrong, consumers are on their own to try to get money back. Public Interest Research Group has been sounding an alarm - payments with these apps go through in an instant, and cannot be reversed.

Now a consumer group says it found a sudden surge in complaints about those peer to peer payment apps.Ī wave of bank imposter scams sweeping the country has put a spotlight on quick-pay apps - some say they make it too easy for criminals to drain your bank account. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) - The nationwide scam targeting Bank of America and Zelle customers is drawing attention to those quick pay apps - like Zelle. It's definitely a problem,' says one consumer advocate.

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