Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Apr 22, 2025

Did someone 'accidentally' send you money on Venmo? You might be getting scammed

Did someone 'accidentally' send you money on Venmo? You might be getting scammed

I was still in the hazy just-past-newborn phase with my son when someone sent me $500. Between diaper changes and endless bounce sessions on the yoga ball, I got a push notification on my phone.

"Anna sent you $500.00 - Antique table - You now have $500.00 in your Venmo account."

Free money! Like most new parents, I had plenty of ideas for how to budget an unexpected $500. (Venmo, a digital wallet app owned by Paypal, took a seller transaction fee of 1.9% plus another 10 cents, so my $500 was actually $490.40.) But I had neither possessed nor sold an antique table. I was running on minimal sleep, but my scam sense was tingling. Anna had sent me the money by accident — or had she? Wouldn't you double-check someone's phone number before sending them that much money?

It might have been an honest mistake. I sure would hate to be out that much because I mistyped a digit. I looked into it, and found a Better Business Bureau warning about this "money sent by accident" scam from 2020.

I looked up Venmo's FAQs on what to do. To my surprise, Venmo said I could "simply send the payment back to that user." (Venmo has since updated its guidance: The page says to contact Venmo support if you receive money from someone you don't know.)


How the scam works


Sorin Mihailovici, the editor-in-chief of Scam Detector, said if I'd sent the money back, I might have found myself out $500.

He explained: The scammer steals credit card numbers — which can be purchased in bulk on the dark web — and attaches those cards to accounts on digital wallet apps like Venmo, Cashapp and Zelle. Then, they "accidentally" send money to hundreds or thousands of people at once, whose phone numbers were similarly acquired in some back-alley of the internet. A subsequent request to get the money back goes out to all the targets. Some of those people will ignore it, but others will send the money back.

Software can automate the entire process, Mihailovici said, so even if only 1% of the scam targets send money back to them, "it's an incredible money-making machine with extremely, extremely little effort."

The first victims, whose credit card numbers were stolen, will see the charges and get in touch with their banks, who will likely reverse the charges. So they get their money back.

But you might not.

In its support documentation on payments from strangers, Venmo notes that when you send money back, it will come from your Venmo balance, unless the amount requested is larger than your Venmo balance. Because the seller fee had been taken out, my balance was $490.40, remember?So if I'd sent Anna back a full $500, according to Venmo, it would have been funded entirely by my outside payment method, AKA my credit card or bank account.

If the first transaction was subsequently reversed, I would have had to take it up with my bank to try and get my money back — which only ends up being successful for less than 14% of scam victims on Venmo, said Steve McFarland, the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.

Think of it this way: If someone handed you an envelope full of cash and said, "Hey, here's the money I owe you for the antique table!" and then left and a minute later came back and said, "Never mind, you're not the right person," you would hand them back the same stack of bills. But that's not exactly how it works with digital payments. A scammer sends you $500, but if the charge is reversed, that initial $500 is clawed back. The money you sent "back" is a different $500. It's your $500.

So it'd be like someone handing you that envelope, then when they came back, you gave them a different set of bills from your wallet. Then a minute later, someone else came along and said, "That's my envelope of cash, someone stole it from me" and took it back.

Mihailovici said Venmo is not the only app where this scam takes place, but because it's so popular, scammers can find the most targets there. And even the updated guidance from Venmo is contradictory in places, he said: On the "payment from a stranger" page, it tells you to contact support if you get an unexpected payment; but on the "cancel a payment" page, it says if you send someone money by accident, you should ask them to send it back to you.

Venmo declined to make anyone available for an interview for this story. A company spokesperson emailed this statement: "The safety and privacy of all Venmo customers and their information has always been a top company priority. When we become aware of scams, we proactively work with law enforcement agencies and industry partners, and use our own systems to mitigate the issue. We encourage customers who suspect they are the target of a scam or have had an unauthorized transaction to contact Customer Service directly."

What should you do if someone sends you money by accident?


"Absolutely do not refund them," McFarland said.


I decided to let the money sit in my Venmo balance. Anna could work it out with Venmo or her bank if she'd really sent it by accident.

A couple days later, I got spammed with requests to send back the $500. Again, I did nothing. I confess I felt my heartstrings tug a little bit: What if Anna had really sent the money by accident, and really needed it back? But I didn't feel bad enough to potentially lose $500.

I left the money in my Venmo account, and a week after it was sent to me, a payment refund for $500 went through and took the money from my Venmo balance . Venmo issued me a credit for the seller transaction fee, so I never lost any money.

I guess I'll never know whether Anna was a scammer or someone who made an honest mistake. If it's the latter, I do hope she worked it out and is enjoying her table.

This particular scam is in part due to an issue with Venmo's user interface: There is no way to manually decline, refuse or cancel a payment. So if you get a payment you didn't expect from a stranger, the safest thing to do is to let it sit in your Venmo account. But if it's from someone you know — say they accidentally sent you their share of the rent instead of their roommate with the same first name — the right thing to do is to send it back to them.

"Money sent by accident" is not the Better Business Bureau's most complained-about scam, McFarland said. Most of the reports he sees are buyer/seller disputes: The buyer uses a digital wallet app to make a payment, and the seller doesn't deliver the item as promised. It used to be that senior citizens were the most common scam victims, he said, but in the last two to three years, that has shifted: It's now millennials and people just above and below that cohort who are the most likely to fall prey to scams.

Why? "They're on the internet," McFarland said.

And millennials "don't research as much" before they make a purchase online from somewhere like Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook Marketplace, McFarland said. "They said 'yes' very quickly, as they hover over their phone, talking with their friends, doing this and doing that and multiple apps at the same time, and don't have the time to investigate certain purchases and deals, and hoping that the stuff shows up at their door. And they're getting scammed."


What if you send money to the wrong person?


What if you're the Anna in this scenario? You can try to contact customer support for the app you used, or dispute the payment with your bank or credit card, and you might be successful. Or you might not.

"There's pretty much nothing you can do," Mihailovichi said. He compared it to leaving money on the table in a coffee shop and then coming back later in the day. That money's probably gone. In the case of a mistaken payment, you can certainly take Venmo's advice and request it back. You'll just have to hope the other person is kind and understanding — and that they didn't read this article.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Nightlife in the streets of Manchester
In God We Profit
Cultural Battles in the Vatican: The Candidates in the Battle for the Holy See and Pope Francis's Testament
Global Leaders Pay Tribute to Pope Francis Following His Death
Wild Chimpanzees Observed Bonding Over Alcoholic Fruit
US Federal Reserve Chair Issues Warning on Tariff Impact
UK Prison Officers Demand Electric Stun Guns Amid Safety Concerns
China, China, China!
Australian National Charged as Mercenary for Fighting in Ukraine
Israel Considers Limited Strikes on Iran's Nuclear Facilities Amid Diplomatic Efforts
Prince Andrew Joins Royal Family Attends Easter Sunday Service at Windsor Castle
Saudi Arabia Offers Max Verstappen Unprecedented Deal to Join Aston Martin
Global Pistachio Shortage Amid Rising Demand for 'Dubai Chocolate'
Trump is assembling a coalition of Western leaders aligned with the MAGA vision, strengthening a unified front for global change
IMF Predicts No Global Recession Amid Trade Tensions
Here’s a police officer with a brilliant gift for swift education
"Some complain that we put thousands in prison. In reality, we set millions free."
This is Vienna, Austria in 2025.
Boeing Jet Returns to US from China Amid Tariff War
Canadian Federal Election: Candidates' Positions on US-Canada Relations and Donald Trump
Resentencing Hearing for Menendez Brothers Who Killed Their Parents Delayed Amid Legal Disputes
Australian Woman Gives Birth To Stranger's Baby In IVF Mix-up
US Sets Deadline for Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal Brokerage
Italy Introduces 'Sex Rooms' in Prisons for Inmates
California Launches Legal Challenge Against Trump Administration's Tariffs
"Groundless": China Dismisses Zelensky's Claims It's Supplying Arms To Russia
UK Psytrance Festival Cancelled Amid Local Protests Over Noise Concerns
French Far-Right Writer Renaud Camus Denied Entry to UK
UK Police Force Updates Search Policy for Trans Individuals in Custody
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Meets with Donald Trump to Discuss EU-US Trade Tensions
Canada's Federal Party Leaders Engage in Final Debate Ahead of General Election
Ukraine and US Sign Outline of Minerals Deal
Fast Food Chain Refuses to Apologize for Online Comment About Katy Perry's Space Voyage
New York Attorney General Letitia James Faces Criminal Referral for Alleged Mortgage Fraud
Mark Cuban admits support for Trump executive order: ‘Gotta be honest’
US Senator Meets with Deported Immigrant in El Salvador Amid Custody Dispute
U.S. State Department Raises El Salvador’s Safety Ranking, Making It Safer Than France and Other European Nations
UK Government Assumes Control of British Steel's Scunthorpe Plant Amid Shutdown Threat
UK MP Wera Hobhouse Denied Entry to Hong Kong During Family Visit
Bangladesh Issues Arrest Warrant for UK MP Tulip Siddiq
China Urges United States to Cancel Tariffs Amid Escalating Trade Tensions
The Empire’s USD Pyramid Scheme Is Working Brilliantly—So Why ‘Fix’ It?
China Raises Tariffs on U.S. Goods to 125% Amid Escalating Trade Dispute
Elon Musk Reports $150 Billion in Projected Government Savings Amid Fraud Investigations
U.S. and Panama Finalize Defense Agreements Amid Canal Access and Chinese Influence Concerns
China Stands Firm Amidst Trade Disputes with the US: A Factual Analysis
U.S. Tariff Escalation Sparks Global Trade Tensions
Helicopter crashes in NYC with four people on board.
Australia Dismisses China's Suggestion to Collaborate Against US Tariffs
EU Postpones Response to US Tariffs
×