District Attorney Warns of Fraud Risks For Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App Users

According to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the ownership companies of Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App have been notified by letters that their financial apps are exposing consumers to fraudulent activities, resulting in the depletion of large amounts of money from their bank accounts. As a result, he has requested these companies enhance their security measures.

According to Bragg’s correspondences, he is addressing a rise in fraudulent and theft-related incidents that have been occurring through the exploitation of personal electronic devices, specifically iPhones, using your company’s mobile financial applications.

As per the district attorney, the rise in usage of peer-to-peer payment services, which currently handle around $1 trillion in payments, has also led to an increase in fraudulent activities and scams.

Over the last year, there have been instances of theft occurring in various locations such as Los Angeles, where multiple individuals were robbed at knifepoint and lost thousands of dollars through Venmo. In another incident in Orlando, a woman had thousands of dollars taken from her Venmo account after a child requested to use her phone. These types of thefts and robberies have also been documented in public reports in states like West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and other parts of the United States.

Bragg’s letters stated that these offenses involve an individual who is not authorized to access unlocked devices and then proceeds to deplete significant amounts of money from bank accounts. They do this by using mobile financial apps to make purchases and utilizing the financial information obtained from the apps to open new accounts. The offenders also gain control over the phone’s security by altering passwords, recovery accounts, and application settings. The relatively simple process of obtaining large sums of money in a short amount of time is serving as an incentive for many people to commit these crimes, resulting in severe financial consequences and sometimes even physical harm to the community.

The attorney in charge of the district has urged Venmo, Zelle and Cash App to implement extra security measures such as setting transaction limits, mandating secondary verification within a 24-hour period, and improving their detection of suspicious behavior.

According to Bragg’s letters, there has been a concerning increase in illegal activities due to inadequate security measures and business policies associated with their software. Bragg’s has asked for appointments with the corporations.

According to their statement from Zelle, they have been making consistent efforts to enhance the security of Zelle’s infrastructure, resulting in less than 0.1% of transactions being reported as fraudulent or scam-related, with this percentage continuing to decrease.