Why does Clark hate Zelle so much? Someone walk me through the risks

You are correct.

I should have expanded to add they don’t recognize this as theft, like they would if a CC was hacked/stolen/etc. But they should.

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I disagree. This is not a case of theft or an account being hacked. It is a case of somebody falling for a scam. It is not the bank’s responsibility to protect customers from themselves or to eat the costs when somebody falls for a scam.

Edit: I read your post to quickly. Upon further review I see and acknowledge your point. :slight_smile:

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I was kinda thinking how they would cover this if someone fell for a phishing scam [sp?] That’s also being suckered.

Actually, I’m not positive they would cover a scam, but “think” they do

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Scammers also use prepaid Visa cards, which does not imply insecure prepaid Visa cards. It’s the victim being inattentive.

I am guessing though that the next wave will be when the press starts looking into other banks and then who DOES cover funds lost through Zelle; whether by scam or by someone hacking in. Then I think the public will start waking up a bit. It still won’t solve the problem of [at fault] “It is not us, it is them” (banks vrs Zelle).

The problem with Zelle is not only scams! My husband attempted to send $2000.00 from our credit union to BoA using Zelle for the first time. He used the routing number and BoA account number and entered one incorrect digit in the account number. The money is “LOST” since August 8, 2022 and we have received virtually no interest/assistance from either the credit union nor BoA to help us to recover our funds. We were told two days ago that recovery of our funds is “unlikely”. I am furious! This is LEGAL THEFT! Nobody should lose money in a banking situation because of a TYPO! THIS SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!

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It wasn’t $20,000 but this is terrible because there should be a way to reverse the transaction and maybe charge you a return funds fee

My concern is someone would hack into my account pretending to be me and then XYZ bank claims I transferred money to the scamster. How does XYZ know that it was you that initiated the Zelle transfer and not someone pretending to be you?

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Update

I decided to ressurect this topic when I saw the stats thismorning on TheStreet.Com:

It used to be that banks and credit card companies were the primary targets of financial fraudsters.

Not anymore.

Now digital payment providers like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle find themselves in the cyber data crosshairs.

According to the most recent Phone Scam Monitor Report, Zelle data fraud scams rose by 816% from 2021 to 2022. Meanwhile, PayPal data fraud incidents rose 31% over the same time period.

Higher scam rates are a big red flag, as they signal fraudsters see certain companies as easier targets.

It comes down to even if the platform is exactly the same as others (which it appears not to be), fraudsters are taking advantage of and the chance you would trageted is extremely high compared to others. So yes, an individual may be smart enough to avoid a scam, but it appears that many people using the platform are not. As they say “You pay your money, you take your chances”.

Here’s an article from Readers Digest about Zelle. It comes down to a people problem not an app problem.

It’s important to make sure your phone is passcode protected and that your financial apps have two factor authentication. Something I’ve heard of happening is someone is in a public place on their phone (waiting for rideshare is common) and someone snatches the phone out of your hand. Now they have your unlocked phone and will look for money transfer apps. Make sure these all require secondary authentication. Face id or passcode.

OK, but from what base? If Zelle usage has gone up the same amount in that time frame, I’m not sure it means much. Paypal has been around for 20 years, so is well past the giant growth phase.

Not that I’m going to touch Zelle. :joy:

I thought part of the problem with Zelle is that the banks would sign you up for it and attach it to your accounts without you knowing it was even there. Then, if someone were to break into your account and transfer money using Zelle, then the banks would just wash their hands of it and blame the problem on you.

When Clark started talking about this I looked and found some accounts that had Zelle connected to them. I was not aware of any of this and shut down Zelle on those accounts. When transferring money to people I use Venmo that is connected to a savings account specifically for that purpose. When I need to transfer $ to someone, I transfer the exact amount into that account before starting Venmo. There is no automatic overdraft on that account and if there’s not enough money in the account the Venmo transaction fails.