Is Venmo safe and foolproof? Or are scams possible?

RRP said:

EPILOGUE:
Thanks for all the sage advice! I have done nothing and the $700 will sit in my Venmo account until Venmo takes it back. At this stage the perp has no information about me other than my Venmo account and he isn't getting anything from me - not even a nasty reply to his last Venmo comment which now was 14 hours ago.

what happens if you just take the 700 out of the account, ive tried giving money back to a bank before and it was impossible. the bank gave me money weekly for months, in the end i would just say thankyou

Ozzie_Isaac said:

fishlessman said:

RRP said:

EPILOGUE:
Thanks for all the sage advice! I have done nothing and the $700 will sit in my Venmo account until Venmo takes it back. At this stage the perp has no information about me other than my Venmo account and he isn't getting anything from me - not even a nasty reply to his last Venmo comment which now was 14 hours ago.

what happens if you just take the 700 out of the account, ive tried giving money back to a bank before and it was impossible. the bank gave me money weekly for months, in the end i would just say thankyou

When they accidentally deposit a few million, they will reach out.

https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/police-louisiana-woman-refuses-return-12m-mistakenly-deposited-into-her-account/RBEFASGFLJEWTFZGV3VDXMAWEM/

fishlessman said:

dbCooper said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

fishlessman said:

RRP said:

EPILOGUE:
Thanks for all the sage advice! I have done nothing and the $700 will sit in my Venmo account until Venmo takes it back. At this stage the perp has no information about me other than my Venmo account and he isn't getting anything from me - not even a nasty reply to his last Venmo comment which now was 14 hours ago.

what happens if you just take the 700 out of the account, ive tried giving money back to a bank before and it was impossible. the bank gave me money weekly for months, in the end i would just say thankyou

When they accidentally deposit a few million, they will reach out.

https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/police-louisiana-woman-refuses-return-12m-mistakenly-deposited-into-her-account/RBEFASGFLJEWTFZGV3VDXMAWEM/

This case caught my attention a few months back.  In this situation they did not get the money back...

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

citibank is pretty shady, my bet is they screwed the judge years earlier. i still remember the woman in collections 35 something years ago back in college, her name was mrs rock

Didn't realize Mark Furman became a judge after the OJ fiasco.

That is a pretty interesting article.  I can only imagine the joy on the creditors who got paid (on loans Revlon was most likely never going to repay) and the sinking feeling one has when erroneously sending out $1,000,000,000.

Ozzie_Isaac said:

fishlessman said:

dbCooper said:

Ozzie_Isaac said:

fishlessman said:

RRP said:

EPILOGUE:
Thanks for all the sage advice! I have done nothing and the $700 will sit in my Venmo account until Venmo takes it back. At this stage the perp has no information about me other than my Venmo account and he isn't getting anything from me - not even a nasty reply to his last Venmo comment which now was 14 hours ago.

what happens if you just take the 700 out of the account, ive tried giving money back to a bank before and it was impossible. the bank gave me money weekly for months, in the end i would just say thankyou

When they accidentally deposit a few million, they will reach out.

https://www.fox23.com/news/trending/police-louisiana-woman-refuses-return-12m-mistakenly-deposited-into-her-account/RBEFASGFLJEWTFZGV3VDXMAWEM/

This case caught my attention a few months back.  In this situation they did not get the money back...

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/02/citibank-just-got-a-500-million-lesson-in-the-importance-of-ui-design/

citibank is pretty shady, my bet is they screwed the judge years earlier. i still remember the woman in collections 35 something years ago back in college, her name was mrs rock

Didn't realize Mark Furman became a judge after the OJ fiasco.

That is a pretty interesting article.  I can only imagine the joy on the creditors who got paid (on loans Revlon was most likely never going to repay) and the sinking feeling one has when erroneously sending out $1,000,000,000.

citibank bought my mortgage years ago, it was for 6.5 percent. within a year they notified me for a rate reduction to 2.25 percent, a week later it was all signed off at my work, no paperwork, no proof of income or employment, no fees, no nothing, they came to me. i still wonder what skeleton was in their closet, that doesnt happen.

nolaegghead said:

ColbyLang said:

Fellas. Keep in mind Venmo is not backed by any fiduciary insurance. Leave little to nothing in those accounts. 

FDIC insurance is if the institution fails (not you getting ripped off), in this case, if Venmo failed you could lose your money if that money went in your account from Venmo transactions.  It would be insured if you loaded it up from your bank account or through direct deposit. 

Venmo is an unsecured claim, unless direct deposit is made from an actual bank. Transfer from a debit card to your account doesn’t count. Either way, don’t leave money in your account 

Sounds like your instincts with this one were on point, Ron.  A lot of folks out there getting scammed these days.  My wife works with high school students who are first-generation college kids, and one of them got scammed recently out of some serious cash (when she doesn't have much to begin with).  It was all part of a thing where she thought she was doing a research internship.  

JohnInCarolina said:

Sounds like your instincts with this one were on point, Ron.  A lot of folks out there getting scammed these days.  My wife works with high school students who are first-generation college kids, and one of them got scammed recently out of some serious cash (when she doesn't have much to begin with).  It was all part of a thing where she thought she was doing a research internship.  

How does this get flagged? It’s getting old.  

kl8ton said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Sounds like your instincts with this one were on point, Ron.  A lot of folks out there getting scammed these days.  My wife works with high school students who are first-generation college kids, and one of them got scammed recently out of some serious cash (when she doesn't have much to begin with).  It was all part of a thing where she thought she was doing a research internship.  

It is so sad how much time and effort these slime balls spend thinking of ways to steal/cheat/ruin lives.  I am seeing a new trend with banks.  I have customers who have to call their bank to authorize transactions exceeding their  pre-set transaction amount.  For example, if I try to run someone's credit/debit card for $700, they have to be on the phone with the bank authorizing said charge.  One customer asked the bank if this "threshold" could be increased.  The answer was yes, but my customer would be liable for any fraudulent charges that may occur between the previous and new limit.  Ron's charge (yes I know this is venmo and not a traditional bank or credit card transaction) would fall into this category.  

There is a show on NatGeo called Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller that is a great watch. One of the episodes is about scammers all over the world. It will give you a different look at the situation. 

alaskanassasin said:

kl8ton said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Sounds like your instincts with this one were on point, Ron.  A lot of folks out there getting scammed these days.  My wife works with high school students who are first-generation college kids, and one of them got scammed recently out of some serious cash (when she doesn't have much to begin with).  It was all part of a thing where she thought she was doing a research internship.  

It is so sad how much time and effort these slime balls spend thinking of ways to steal/cheat/ruin lives.  I am seeing a new trend with banks.  I have customers who have to call their bank to authorize transactions exceeding their  pre-set transaction amount.  For example, if I try to run someone's credit/debit card for $700, they have to be on the phone with the bank authorizing said charge.  One customer asked the bank if this "threshold" could be increased.  The answer was yes, but my customer would be liable for any fraudulent charges that may occur between the previous and new limit.  Ron's charge (yes I know this is venmo and not a traditional bank or credit card transaction) would fall into this category.  

I call BS on that, if it is the case they should find a new bank.

There is a limit on that stuff.  The bank isn't liable if someone steals from you.  My bank scared me straight with my checking accounts.  Apparently people steal corporate checks out of the mail and if they find ones that are $20-30K+, they will sell the account number and routing number.  The scammer buying it now knows there probably more than that in the account.  They don't even need to fake a check anymore, they just ACH it.....and you have to see it and stop it.  They said if it's more than 24 hrs, you're screwed though.

So, the way they set it up for me.  I have a multiple accounts for the company. The one that the paper checks come out of is locked down for ACH withdraws.  I have a separate account that the credit card payments, power bill, etc are withdrawn from via ACH......and I don't ever write checks out of that account and keep a low balance.  So no one will ever know the number unless there's a data breach online.

Set up alerts, use credit cards instead of debit cards, spread your money around, have a unique email address and special "internet birthdate" for financial logins, etc.  And just like gift cards, don't ever leave money in any non FDIC insured account that you don't want to lose through bankruptcy or theft.

alaskanassasin said:

@stlcharcoal I was referring to spending limits on debit card. Visa, Master Card don’t put a cap on the amount of a fraudulent transaction that they will cover unless you let it go on for awhile. So the bank saying your liable for a fraudulent activity over their preset daily spending limit is a load of crap.

While not disagreeing with your conclusion, there are different rules for credit vs debit card transactions.  Federal law addresses the (non-) liability of the credit  cardholder for fraudulent transactions.  The card issuers (banks, Visa, MC) set the rules for cardholder liability on debit transactions.  The issuers have tried to incentivize use of debit by creating policies limiting liability, but there is nothing stopping them from changing those policies as, when and if desired.

As stated by @stlcharcoal , use credit over debit.

My car was broken into two weeks ago on vacation and my wife’s purse stolen. The fraudulent transactions started within minutes. All the fraudulent credit card transactions were immediately taken off my account when I reported the issue. The debit card transactions (two tickets on southwest for $1200) were processed and the bank said there was no way to stop it from clearing and that we would have to dispute it. It’s been two weeks and southwest still has my money. 

An additional note - since the debit card used for the airline tickets was for a business account, under federal banking regs the bank IS NOT OBLIGATED to refund the fraudulent charges. Even though I was on the phone with them at the time the charges were made and I have a police report. Was just told that this morning. 

my debit card is only used to deposit at the bank, the tellers dont deposit there unless i insert the card and enter the pin. i will be the last one inline when they shut the tellers down