Yahoo Finance New York DA Warns Venmo, Zelle and Cash App Fraud Putting Your Financial Safety ‘At Risk’
Recently, there has been an uptick in financial fraud, in New York City and nationally, via mobile payment apps like Venmo, Cash App and Zelle. People’s bank accounts are being drained and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr. is sounding the alarm.
Food Stamps: Photo IDs Proposed To Better Protect SNAP Benefits — How It Would Prevent Fraud
Owe Money to the IRS? Most People Don’t Realize You Can Do This – Today
In an official statement, Bragg released a series of letters he sent to Venmo, Cash App and Zelle demanding swift action to protect consumers who use these financial apps. Bragg described the crimes as involving an unauthorized user gaining access to unlocked devices, and then stealing significant sums of money from bank accounts. Thrives are making purchases with the mobile payment apps and then using financial information from them to open new accounts.
“Thousands or even tens of thousands can be drained from financial accounts in a matter of seconds with just a few taps,” Bragg explained to Newsweek. “Without additional protections, customers’ financial and physical safety is being put at risk.”
Bragg explained that some scams include a fraudster asking someone to use their phone for personal use and then transferring money before handing the phone back to them, or asking to donate money to charity through their phone and then sending money to themselves instead. The most egregious cases involve physical assault and drugging victims to get access to their phone’s financial apps.
Sponsored: Owe the IRS $10K or more? Schedule a FREE consultation to see if you qualify for tax relief.
4 Financial Protections Suggested By Bragg
Bragg has some suggestions for the leadership of these popular payment apps:
Implement multi-factor authentication: Bragg suggested mobile payment apps Venmo, Cash App, and Zelle add multi-factor authentication features to their apps. Whether via a separate authenticator app that generates a code to access your account in addition to your password or other means, this would add a layer of security beyond a simple password.
Imposing default lower limits on daily monetary transfers: Only allowing a certain amount of money to be transferred from one person to another each day could help mitigate risk in these fraud situations. Those who lost thousands of dollars at a clip may have lost less money if there were default lower transfer limits already in place.
Requiring wait times and secondary verification for large transactions: Implementing wait times and some form of secondary verification for each transfer would give users time to identify and cancel unauthorized activities.
Implement stolen device protection: A stolen device protection feature would further protect consumers. If a device is reported lost or stolen, these payment apps could make it impossible to initiate a peer-to-peer money transfer.
More From GOBankingRates
I'm a Shopping Expert: 9 Items I'd Never Put in My Grocery Cart
Luxury Living on a Budget: 6 Tips for the Upper Middle Class
Experts: Make These 7 Money Resolutions If You Want To Become Rich on an Average Salary
4 Reasons You Should Be Getting Your Paycheck Early, According to An Expert
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: New York DA Warns Venmo, Zelle and Cash App Fraud Putting Your Financial Safety ‘At Risk’
