BACKGROUND:
This may be a good comment opp as the holiday shopping season kicks off. Although Regulation E* (part of the federal Electronic Fund Transfer Act) requires banks to refund consumers for fraudulent transactions on their accounts, banks are stating that Zelle, as a peer-to-peer app, does not have the same protection. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau put out a directive in June, saying that Regulation E only applies “if a third party fraudulently induces a consumer into sharing account access information.” So the working assumption is that if a consumer willingly sends money to a faked/spoofed account, they’re out of luck.
- KWTX in Texas reports Central Texas woman scammed out of hundreds of dollars trying to buy PS5, after the woman paid $550 through Zelle for a PS5. Fraudsters are stealing Twitter accounts to sell game consoles and insisting buyers pay with Zelle.
- ABC7 in NY reports Warning: Don’t fall for scam involving Bank of America/Zelle cash transfer, telling how a text claiming to be from Bank of America asked a woman if she just authorized a Zelle transaction for $1,375.50. Upon replying “no”, a call from “Bank of America” walked her through a sham process of “retrieving” her money, which was then stolen.
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