Zelle scams?

[measureman]

My wife posted a couple furniture items on a local sale site for $200 cash only and one person tried twice to get her to accept Zelle.
Can you be scammed on a person to person Zelle payment?

 

[Rand]

yes
cash only for physical goods.

 

[JTK]

For a local transaction in that price range, I'd be OK with a zelle payment. If it was thousands, probably not.

 

[Rand]

if you can send zelle for an item you are picking up in person you can hand over cash.
99% chance scam.

 

[tmorris1]

I don't know how they could scam you if you are careful? One they transfer the money and it shows up in your account it is yours. They need no information other than an email to complete the transfer.

 

[mk378]

They send a fake "Zelle confirmation" that makes you think that you have money. Typically they will "send" too much or a multiple transaction or say they don't want the furniture after all, and insist that you refund them which will take your real money. Or numerous other schemes to convince you to put your money into a Zelle account that they control.

Anyone offering full price sight unseen for this kind of thing is suspect.

 

[measureman]

They send a fake "Zelle confirmation" that makes you think that you have money. Typically they will "send" too much or a multiple transaction or say they don't want the furniture after all, and insist that you refund them which will take your real money. Or numerous other schemes to convince you to put your money into a Zelle account that they control.

Anyone offering full price sight unseen for this kind of thing is suspect.

Yeah I told my wife if they offer $250 if we will take Zelle then it is a scam.

 

[PandaBear]

If they can drive over to pick up the item physically, they can go to an ATM and get the cash.

 

[tmorris1]

They send a fake "Zelle confirmation" that makes you think that you have money. Typically they will "send" too much or a multiple transaction or say they don't want the furniture after all, and insist that you refund them which will take your real money. Or numerous other schemes to convince you to put your money into a Zelle account that they control.

Anyone offering full price sight unseen for this kind of thing is suspect.

That may be, but if you look in your bank account and the money is there, you have nothing to worry about. Scam the scammer and keep the money.

 

[billt460]

Don't walk away from Zelle, run away. Same with all of this Bitcoin crap. I bank at Chase, and they told me to run away from ANY online payment method that requires an app on your phone to work. And never use your phone to transfer any money.

They either are, or can be made fraudulent very easily. They get complaints from their customers daily about them. If they won't accept Visa, AMEX, or Mastercard as a payment method, just keep walking.

 

[tmorris1]

Don't walk away from Zelle, run away. Same with all of this Bitcoin crap. I bank at Chase, and they told me to run away from ANY online payment method that requires an app on your phone to work. And never use your phone to transfer any money.

They either are, or can be made fraudulent very easily. They get complaints daily about them. If they won't accept Visa, AMEX, or Mastercard as a payment method, just keep walking.

I agree with some of that, but you need no app for Zelle. Your bank has to support it. Chase is kind of full of it though because they have an app to pay and transfer money with a Chase account and they support Zelle. They will probably try to scam you, but you would have to let them is what I am saying and there is nothing unsafe with Zelle if used properly.

 

[Astro14]

I have used Zelle to transfer money to family members.

I would not use it for garage sale items, or in the case of people with whom I do not already have an existing relationship.

Friends and family only.

 

[Silver]

Google 'Clark Howard Zelle'.

 

[JohnnyG]

Don't walk away from Zelle, run away. Same with all of this Bitcoin crap. I bank at Chase, and they told me to run away from ANY online payment method that requires an app on your phone to work. And never use your phone to transfer any money.

They either are, or can be made fraudulent very easily. They get complaints from their customers daily about them. If they won't accept Visa, AMEX, or Mastercard as a payment method, just keep walking.

I understand that, and think you are correct for online purchases. In fact I ran into that myself while searching for gunpowder purchases online. Most of them wanted payment using Zelle, or some other peer to peer mechanism. None of the suppliers said "In Stock", and most of them said "Special Order".
In which case I did NOT go through with the purchase.
When putting that question to the knowledgeable people on this board, they reinforced the fact that a purchase through Zelle is like handing a person cash. If you don't know them, it's not advisable.
There are two things that I don't understand though.
1) When you are the receiver of the cash, (the above possible scams accepted) why would it make a difference? As others have said, once it hits your account, you are clear.
2) I also bank with Chase, and the option to send cash using Zelle is right there on their website. Why would they use it if it was that bad?

 

[tmorris1]

I understand that, and think you are correct for online purchases. In fact I ran into that myself while searching for gunpowder purchases online. Most of them wanted payment using Zelle, or some other peer to peer mechanism. None of the suppliers said "In Stock", and most of them said "Special Order".
In which case I did NOT go through with the purchase.
When putting that question to the knowledgeable people on this board, they reinforced the fact that a purchase through Zelle is like handing a person cash. If you don't know them, it's not advisable.
There are two things that I don't understand though.
1) When you are the receiver of the cash, (the above possible scams accepted) why would it make a difference? As others have said, once it hits your account, you are clear.
2) I also bank with Chase, and the option to send cash using Zelle is right there on their website. Why would they use it if it was that bad?

That was my point as well. I wouldn't use it to pay for anything, but if they transfer cash to you and it hits your bank account it is yours. Plain and simple. That is the complaint for the senders if they mess up and send it somewhere by mistake.

You would have to just make sure that they don't try to send you some BS link in an email or something that isn't what it appears to be.

 

[JavierH19]

Zelle isn't a scam. They probably want her to ship it and they'll promise to pay once they get a tracking code but never pay for it in actuality.

 

[alarmguy]

Zelle is advertised as “for people you know and trust.”

 

[Astro14]

What one of my banks says about Zelle:

"If you don't know the person, or aren't sure you will get what you paid for, such as items bought from an online bidding or sales site, we recommend not using Zelle®.

Neither USAA nor Zelle® offers a protection program for any authorized payments made with Zelle® – for example, if you do not receive the item you paid for or the item is not as described or as you expected."

So, you transfer the money to a person - that money is GONE. FOREVER.

No fraud protection.

So, while Zelle may not be a scam - scammers love it, because they keep the money. All of it.

So, to that end, I've just deleted Zelle from my accounts.

 

[measureman]

If they can drive over to pick up the item physically, they can go to an ATM and get the cash.

Exactly what my wife said.
We are selling the furniture to make way for new.
If it's not gone before Wedsnesday I'm calling a junk removal service.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

I wouldn't use Zelle for this simply because then the buyer/sender needs your email address. Screw that.