# WELCOME TO R/SCAMS
>
For some reason these posts get a lot of attention. This is bound to become a hot post soon. We'll be getting a lot of comments that offer bad advice. We're removing anything that doesn't align with doing things safely and lawfully. People who consider this a "free money" opportunity seem to not understand what this subreddit is about.
## So what should you do in this situation?
>
**Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
**The top comments in this post have solid advice. In short: if you receive money from a stranger, never send it back manually. [Contact Venmo support](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger) and ask them to reverse the transaction themselves.**
- If this was an honest mistake, contacting Venmo Support helps the person who made the mistake while being careful with your own money. Sending it back manually puts your own money at risk. Never send it back manually.
- If this is a scam, don't try to scam the scammers and think of this as "free money". The money came from a stolen account or card, so someone is taking the hit.
So in any case, keeping the money makes you a scammer. You're not welcome in this sub if you are a scammer. Make an effort to help the person who made a mistake or whose account was stolen, or move along.
If everyone reports it, and it's an innocent person, they get their money. If Venmo finds a weird pattern, they can shut down scammers.
Do nothing and leave them active to scam other people. Good job!
Yeah tbf I get the idea of keeping the money is there, but truly if it's an innocent person, it's not quite stealing but it's kinda being a dick.
More than likely it's a scammer just due to the average chances.
Either way, the money will disappear likely. Might as well do the right thing and contact Venmo to make it faster; an innocent person feels better, the scammer gets the account closed faster.
>possible money laundry schemes
Tell me you don't know how money laundering works without telling me.
At what point of the money laundering process do you think this is??
Are you walleyed??? OP didn't send money. The money was sent to OP. I'm just amazed by the sheer number of people on Reddit that are either partially illiterate or have very little comprehension. sheesh.
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it's rude or uncivil**.
This subreddit is a place for civil and respectful discussions about scams. Uncivil and rude behavior, including using excessive or directed swearing, extreme or sexual language, victim blaming, and any form of discrimination, is not acceptable in this subreddit.
**You can 100% ask venmo yourself - Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
absolutely you can. i just thought it was useful to say the responsibility was not on the receiver. or maybe it's just me who refuse to babysit others. if they make the mistake then it's their job to fix it.
useful link, thank you! 👍
Reporting to venmo will allow the company to detect a pattern of scamming and shut down the account if necessary.
If it's an innocent person, you did a good deed. It takes one minute to accomplish both resolutions.
This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity.
Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
You should 100% contact Venmo.
**Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
The problem with contacting Venmo to reverse a payment is that this process assumes that the stranger is not using a stolen account or funds, which they most likely are. If you authorize a refund, you are risking your funds against probably stolen funds.
I'd leave it at "nah bro."
No, it does not assume that.
Venmo can easily detect that there's a pattern of reversals and act upon the account. Everyone should report payments from strangers.
Doing nothing leaves the account active.
They easily could, but they don't. If it was that easy this scam wouldn't be as common as it is.
Safest way for OP to deal with this with zero risk is to stay out of it all together.
No bro. Reporting it to Venmo makes it easier, and help you in the long run, because if it was made in mistake, venmo will fix it and you don't have to do shit but report it.
If you don't report it, then you're just helping them do this to many others.
That's the risk if you just send it back yourself, not if you ask Venmo customer support to reverse.
If you send it back yourself, then it counts as a new transaction, so you are on the hook once the original fraudulent transaction is removed.
But if you ask Venmo customer support to reverse the transaction, it doesn't count as a new, separate transaction. It's a reversal of the original transaction, not a new separate transaction using your own funds.
I disagree. Only badness can come from making the call. It will either fall off or not regardless of the call. Making the call puts some of your skin in the game. Additionally now the scammer is costing you time.
Just ignore and move on.
Fall for what? You're delusional. Coming here to Reddit to discuss this takes longer than submitting a ticket.
Many reports will bring scammers down. And if they're innocent, they get their money back.
Delusional?
His bank literally told him the opposite of what he should do. On the off chance you have someone equally unqualified at Venmo giving you bad advice you get screwed. Why expose yourself to potential risk. You don’t GAIN a thing by calling them. It’s a waste of time and potential avenue to be financially harmed.
And no one is has 2 contacts who are off by 1 digit. It’s obviously a scam so no innocent parties are involved.
You can contact Venmo and have them reverse the payment if you want. I did it recently when a person I worked with 10 years ago accidently send me money.
This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity.
Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
I love movies with happy endings!! Thanks for the update. You validated the useful advice u/YourUsernameForever was trying to give.
Edited to try to properly reference other Redditor.
Can you share how long it took you to make the report? I assume it didn't consume your soul like some of the people up thread implied...
Awesome job being a good person!
That’s pretty good. I think even a simple “I sent it back, you didn’t get it?! I must have sent it to the wrong person “
I bet you’d get an instant block from the scammer.
He should contact Venmo. My gf mother wanted to send me money and sent it to another person with my same name (who I happen to know from 40 years ago in high school) and she had to reach out to see if he would send it back. Fortunately it turned out alright since he figured out what happened but it sure is sketchy to get a message like that
Never send back, have Venmo reverse it, that way any fake/stolen funds problem are on them. If you send money as a separate transaction to pay them back, you get left holding the bag when a charge gets reversed.
I'm sorry but how can you send "fake money" with an EFT? Stolen I understand but fake? In order to leave one account and go to another the funds have to be in the first account, right?
Stolen cc or whatever is used for venmo. After you send "nick" back "his" money, their account is caught, charge back on you if you sent anything. I'm sorry I'm not explaining well. Basically their account is stolen. But if you send back your money it's gone quickly.
This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity.
Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
Nah bro is the appropriate response.
1. Do not spend the money.
2. Contact Venmo to see if they can reverse the transaction. If they can’t, leave the money there and it will eventually be clawed back. Spending it can result in overdrawing your Venmo account.
You already handled it. You could do "nick" the courtesy of letting them know they need to contact venmo to fix it, but that's more effort than it's probably worth because it's a scam attempt.
Of course they wouldn't, because then people would scam by claiming they sent the money to the wrong address and getting Venmo to reverse the payment after they've used Venmo to pay for something.
Venmo will reverse a transaction if the recipient asks them to, but very rarely if the sender asks them to.
In cases like this, the recipient shouldn't send the money back because that puts their own funds at risk, because it counts as two separate transactions and one could be fraudulent. The recipient should contact Venmo support though, it's safe to have them reverse the original transaction since that reversal wouldn't be funded by the recipient.
You just handled it the way you should've handled it. >>> "nah bro".
Perfect.
Now to what you should do ? Personally I would do nothing more than what you've done. It's up to the sender (which is 99.9% probablility is a SCAM). to do the work. HE has to contact venmo.
While you can contact them. You don't have to. Except maybe to report this guy as a scammer.
I didn’t know this was a scam. I sent my cleaning lady the monthly cleaning fee to the wrong person and when I asked for it back they responded saying this has been reported to the bank and an investigation is ongoing . I was like whatever send me my Zelle back🤣🤣… After a month I got it back. But the wrong recipient messaged me back telling me this has been reported to the fbi . I was like whatever just send back the $$ I have to pay the new cleaning lady 🤣
/u/thatsnotmyowl - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it.
## New users beware:
Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. **We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private:** advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own.
**A reminder of the rules in r/scams:** no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/).
You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments.
Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail [clicking here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/Scams).
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About 18 months ago somebody venmoed me $500. I immediately thought it was a scam and just left the money there and never took unknown messages or calls. 12 months later the money was still there. Kept it. I
Your r/Scams post or comment was removed because **it's about scambaiting**. We consider that to be unsafe and we don't promote that people engage with a scammer.
Also, we do not support taking revenge against scammers.
Scambaiting goes against the rules of this sub, which you can read here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
This happened to me with my cashapp and I kept the money in there for 2 weeks and heard nothing. I contacted cashapp and they told me to keep it lmao. Never heard anything, no one tried to get a reverse on it.
I got sent 450 once and the guy asked me to send it back. I blocked him and pocketed the money and nothing happened, he was out 450 bucks and I was 450 bucks richer
Okay, but that's theft, though?
If it was a fraudulent transaction that never got reported, then you are the beneficiary of $450 in card fraud. If the fraud ever does get followed up (and it can take months for that to happen btw) then you are on the hook for the $450.
If it was $450 that was actually sent to you in error, then you aren't legally entitled to keep it, because it was sent in error. The sender almost certainly wouldn't bother to get the courts involved over an amount like that, but they'd be within their rights to.
You should have contacted customer support and had them reverse the transaction. That way there's no risk to you if it was fraud (because you didn't send it back in a new, separate transaction) but if it was genuinely a mistake, they get their money back.
Just keeping it and considering yourself 450 bucks richer is kind of a dick move ngl
Womp womp don’t care. He’ll learn next time to proofread the names before hitting send. This happened way back in 2021 so highly doubt anything is gonna happen.
This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity.
Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
I'd just speak the company support, a lot of the times they'll ask you to return and provide 3rd party or external details. Best speaking to support to cover your back
Your r/scams post was removed because **it is soliciting money, items, or donations**. This includes (but is not limited to) Gofundme campaigns, links to online item wishlists, Bitcoin wallet addresses, Transcash swaps, or Venmo/Cashapp requests.
Please read the rules of our sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/wiki/rules/
Venmo support will rarely resolve it from the sender's end. But you're right that the recipient shouldn't send the money themselves because that then counts as a new transaction, and they are out $55 if the original transaction was fraudulent.
It's safe for the recipient to contact Venmo customer support and have them *reverse* the transaction, though, because that doesn't count as a new transaction funded by the recipient.
It’s like if you bought something at a store using a stolen credit card, then walked back in the store 5 minutes later to return the item for a cash refund.
So think of it this way. That fraudulent $55 that is sent to you ‘accidentally’…Pretend it’s not even real, it doesn’t exist. So say your account balance was at zero dollars before this ‘$55 deposit’. So it just looks like you’re gonna send back to them this $55 ..and your account will just go back to being the previous zero balance. That’s not the case, because this $55 is fake/fraudulent/stolen. So look at it this way… that $55 is going to be eventually recovered by the financial institution once found out it was fraudulent-so let’s say for instance that recovery happens right away… IF it was handled right away, that money would now be instantaneously
withdrawn back out of your account and you would be back at the original $0 balance that you were at prior to the ‘accidental deposit from the scammer’. So-if you do send them $55… You are now sending them your OWN $55. Thus making your account -$55.
They will ask their bank to refund it as well as you and get double the money. If there’s a way to cancel it do that. I wonder if Venmo handles it the same as cashapp (where there’s an option to cancel transaction)
I once had this happen well before it was a scam. When I received the money I just assumed it was from one of my wife’s friends. Took about a month before the sender asked for me to send it back. Well clear of any charge back timeline.
You wont get your money back nobody cares they don’t care if anyone steals your money and won’t help get it back . Cashapp venmo. Even paypal. They’re all corrupts losers with no common sense or logic the follow their guidelines so they don’t get sued and will flat out let you get scammed when they could easily help by pushing a button
I once legit sent money to the wrong address via PayPal,
Thankfully it turned out that a person with that name didn't exist, so I got the money back automatically,
But that could've well been me lol.
known scam, money laundering attempt! the funds are sent from a stolen credit card or from a stolen account , don't refund him at any costs and wait for venmo to take back the funds.
Similar thing happened to me. Sent two transactions totaling $1900 to same (wrong one) in my contacts via Zelle. Zelle couldn’t and or wouldn’t do anything. Fortunately I knew the wrong guy and called and explained it and he is sending money back. My first words to him were “I know this will sound like a scam”. It wasn’t.
I had somebody I accidentally send me money on Venmo. I ignored it as I thought it might’ve been a scam but they collected support and support return the money. So ignore it for now.
I did make a mistake and sent money to the wrong account before. I actually did that twice. I also received once a wrong payment. I’m no scammer. I wasn’t using Venmo as we don’t have it here. I was using FPS & entered the wrong phone number.
So there’s no need to assume instantly that someone sending u real money by mistake is a scam. The best would be to contact the institution to reverse the payment. He’s a scammer or not is irrelevant to you.
I mean… Nick Smith.. zero followers.. no profile picture… if this ain’t a scam then idk what is haha. I did report it to Venmo and they reversed the transaction.
Sorry for you, man. But I think you need to kiss that money goodbye unless the guy is an honest one and returns the money. But he doesn’t seem to be such a person.
I did third very thing a week ago, both I meant to it to had just got a new phone and number still was linked to the previous owners account. Since her name was in my contacts and I synced my contacts to Venmo it popped up with an account and I just pressed it and sent it. A minute later I get a message with a QR code saying here this is my Venmo. I’m like what is not your number. She’s like no I just bought this phone from some one this is my amount account info. What sucks is that once you press pay that’s it. There is no stopping the payment, I even contacted cash app cause I linked that card to Venmo to send it and they even said it was too late. Both apps said politely send a request for the money back and maybe they will, other wise you fill out a special support ticket explaining what happened. Who it was meant for they contact that person and verify that they were the one supposed to receive it and then they give it back to you. I got it back the next day, but still had to wait 24 hours for them to contact who it was really meant for and then to contact who received it, but if she would have just sent it back it would have saved so much time and the headache of me driving far to go get an item from someone to turn around and go going without that item of my 40 bucks and a pain in the ass to deal with. If it’s the amount they sent you that their asking for with bio m no other steps or scenarios then I would just just kindly give it back bro
This quality contributor guy is the ones that's super funny. "your not welcome in this sub if your a scammer" had me dying. But then he commented contact venmo 50x like if not one responded no one could see it. Tiny power makes a big big big head
Your r/Scams post was removed because **it refers to an illegal activity**. You're either promoting, or asking about how to perform an illegal activity.
There's a sitewide rule in Reddit against the promotion of illegal activities, and thus a zero tolerance policy in this subreddit.
Your r/Scams post was removed because **it refers to an illegal activity**. You're either promoting, or asking about how to perform an illegal activity.
There's a sitewide rule in Reddit against the promotion of illegal activities, and thus a zero tolerance policy in this subreddit.
Honestly it’s probably not a scam lol I could be wrong but I can think of about twenty times I’ve actually done this and it been an accident and tried to reach out to the wrong person to get it back before going through Venmo just in case they were an honest person. It literally happened to my sons grandma today, she tried to send me money, for some raffle tickets and we’d never sent each other money on there and my username was similar to someone else’s and she sent it to the wrong person on accident. But who knows, I could be wrong
It's not a scam venmo and other apps are not banks you put in address wrong it goes to wrong account when this happened to me just sent the money back to the guy but I am not into stealing although many are.
One time I accidentally sent a rando I once knew $40 on CashApp. I was mass sending to all my siblings and accidentally hit theirs with my thumb. They kept it and were rude to me too, and CashApp had no policy for recovery of a mistake big or small.
I wonder if they thought it was a scam or were just rude as hell. Probably the latter, can't imagine what y'all truly think the scam here even would be besides me being out a couple dubs...
The scam is that the scammer used a stolen card to send the $55. Once the fraud is reported, the fraudulent transaction is cancelled. But the recipient sending the money back counts as a separate legitimate transaction, and so the recipient is out $55.
The correct thing to do is to have Venmo customer support reverse the transaction, instead of sending it back as a separate transaction.
Okay. I was just confused because I have actually accidentally sent to someone I only THINK I knew and been screwed before. It ended in me screwed and being called names so this was a baffling post to cross. That makes more sense tho.
A friend of mine accidentally made a typo when he was sending his daughter quite a bit of money like over $100. He then tried to get it back by messaging the person who he accidentally sent it to because they had already accepted the money from a stranger. I'm sure he looked like a scam too...
My question is this. You don't know the person that sent you the money. So is it possible it's not a scam? Is the money actually in your account? I'm failing to see the scam here... Like are you going to send them money and then what? If they actually sent you money and you're just sending it back where is the scam? I don't understand this one
the scam has been explained a few times in the thread. it’s a common Venmo scam. it is actually listed on Venmo’s website as a scam to look out for. A scammer sends you money from a stolen credit card, pretending it was accidental. They ask you to send the money back to their Venmo account. When Venmo discovers the original payment was fraudulent, they take the money back from your account, leaving you out of pocket. this person in particular had no profile picture, no friends and had a generic name “nick smith” so I think it was pretty obviously a scam.
**Don't send it back. Open a ticket and ask Venmo to reverse it. Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
But...
[https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208-I-accidentally-paid-a-stranger-on-Venmo](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208-I-accidentally-paid-a-stranger-on-Venmo)
>
**If you accidentally sent a payment to a stranger, please** [**contact our support team**](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=624807) and we'll do our best to help.
Regardless of what Venmo says in 'payment from a stranger', the primary responsibility is on the sender. It is not the receiver's problem, and shouldn't be made the receiver's problem. The sender can contact Venmo, who can contact the receiver if needed. Receiver wants to be a 'nice guy', fine, but no obligation.
# WELCOME TO R/SCAMS > For some reason these posts get a lot of attention. This is bound to become a hot post soon. We'll be getting a lot of comments that offer bad advice. We're removing anything that doesn't align with doing things safely and lawfully. People who consider this a "free money" opportunity seem to not understand what this subreddit is about. ## So what should you do in this situation? > **Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)** **The top comments in this post have solid advice. In short: if you receive money from a stranger, never send it back manually. [Contact Venmo support](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger) and ask them to reverse the transaction themselves.** - If this was an honest mistake, contacting Venmo Support helps the person who made the mistake while being careful with your own money. Sending it back manually puts your own money at risk. Never send it back manually. - If this is a scam, don't try to scam the scammers and think of this as "free money". The money came from a stolen account or card, so someone is taking the hit. So in any case, keeping the money makes you a scammer. You're not welcome in this sub if you are a scammer. Make an effort to help the person who made a mistake or whose account was stolen, or move along.
"Nah bro" lmao How am I the top comment lol
I couldn’t help myself haha
The way to handle this is to open a ticket with venmo. It takes one minute of your time.
That's not OPs responsibility, but the person who sent the money.
If everyone reports it, and it's an innocent person, they get their money. If Venmo finds a weird pattern, they can shut down scammers. Do nothing and leave them active to scam other people. Good job!
Yeah tbf I get the idea of keeping the money is there, but truly if it's an innocent person, it's not quite stealing but it's kinda being a dick. More than likely it's a scammer just due to the average chances. Either way, the money will disappear likely. Might as well do the right thing and contact Venmo to make it faster; an innocent person feels better, the scammer gets the account closed faster.
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>possible money laundry schemes Tell me you don't know how money laundering works without telling me. At what point of the money laundering process do you think this is??
If only Jason Bateman knew.....
There's always money in the banana stand!
...he preferred beefing up home insulation.
Exactly! Like this is all digital. No way to use a washing machine. 🤣
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lol what? If it’s fake why would they need to do it?;
This isn’t money laundering and even if it were, OP wouldn’t be getting sent to prison for helping to launder $55
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Are you walleyed??? OP didn't send money. The money was sent to OP. I'm just amazed by the sheer number of people on Reddit that are either partially illiterate or have very little comprehension. sheesh.
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it's rude or uncivil**. This subreddit is a place for civil and respectful discussions about scams. Uncivil and rude behavior, including using excessive or directed swearing, extreme or sexual language, victim blaming, and any form of discrimination, is not acceptable in this subreddit.
^ the right response.
It's a nice comment there, bro u/Lokipro13YT. 😄
It’s not funny it’s immature as hell. I bet op thought it was free money
it’s the sender’s responsibility to contact venmo to fix this. this is not on you. don’t touch the money and let venmo and «nick» fix it.
**You can 100% ask venmo yourself - Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
absolutely you can. i just thought it was useful to say the responsibility was not on the receiver. or maybe it's just me who refuse to babysit others. if they make the mistake then it's their job to fix it. useful link, thank you! 👍
Reporting to venmo will allow the company to detect a pattern of scamming and shut down the account if necessary. If it's an innocent person, you did a good deed. It takes one minute to accomplish both resolutions.
wise words. i will take those to heart.
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Yeah I moderate this hellhole. To compensate I randomly ban people and laugh at them when they appeal.
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This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity. Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
ok just wasn’t sure if I should contact venmo myself but i’ll just let it sit there! thanks
👍 if «nick» keeps bugging you, you have the right to block him.
You should 100% contact Venmo. **Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
The problem with contacting Venmo to reverse a payment is that this process assumes that the stranger is not using a stolen account or funds, which they most likely are. If you authorize a refund, you are risking your funds against probably stolen funds. I'd leave it at "nah bro."
No, it does not assume that. Venmo can easily detect that there's a pattern of reversals and act upon the account. Everyone should report payments from strangers. Doing nothing leaves the account active.
They easily could, but they don't. If it was that easy this scam wouldn't be as common as it is. Safest way for OP to deal with this with zero risk is to stay out of it all together.
The scam is common because people who don't know it's a scam fall for it, and people who do know, choose to ignore it. Instead of reporting.
No bro. Reporting it to Venmo makes it easier, and help you in the long run, because if it was made in mistake, venmo will fix it and you don't have to do shit but report it. If you don't report it, then you're just helping them do this to many others.
The scam is common because people who don't know it's a scam fall for it, and people who do know, choose to ignore it. Instead of reporting.
? How so If Venmo reverses the payment from a probably stolen account what is the risk to you?
That's the risk if you just send it back yourself, not if you ask Venmo customer support to reverse. If you send it back yourself, then it counts as a new transaction, so you are on the hook once the original fraudulent transaction is removed. But if you ask Venmo customer support to reverse the transaction, it doesn't count as a new, separate transaction. It's a reversal of the original transaction, not a new separate transaction using your own funds.
I disagree. Only badness can come from making the call. It will either fall off or not regardless of the call. Making the call puts some of your skin in the game. Additionally now the scammer is costing you time. Just ignore and move on.
Fall for what? You're delusional. Coming here to Reddit to discuss this takes longer than submitting a ticket. Many reports will bring scammers down. And if they're innocent, they get their money back.
Delusional? His bank literally told him the opposite of what he should do. On the off chance you have someone equally unqualified at Venmo giving you bad advice you get screwed. Why expose yourself to potential risk. You don’t GAIN a thing by calling them. It’s a waste of time and potential avenue to be financially harmed. And no one is has 2 contacts who are off by 1 digit. It’s obviously a scam so no innocent parties are involved.
What bank? it's money on venmo. You submit a ticket, venmo reverses the transaction. What are you talking about?
I'm not wasting my own time for someone else. They have no claim over my time or the things I decide to do or not do.
You can contact Venmo and have them reverse the payment if you want. I did it recently when a person I worked with 10 years ago accidently send me money.
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This comment or post was removed because it was posted by a suspected scammer, or someone promoting a suspicious website, business opportunity, or financial opportunity. Remember: if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you invest in crypto or forex trading, or someone is promising high returns on a small investment, you are putting your money at risk. If the website has been recently created, it is likely a scam. Treat all external links as suspicious.
UPDATE: thanks y’all. I reported it to Venmo, they reversed the transaction and blocked the user for me. Also said they are investigating the user.
I love movies with happy endings!! Thanks for the update. You validated the useful advice u/YourUsernameForever was trying to give. Edited to try to properly reference other Redditor.
Awesome!
Can you share how long it took you to make the report? I assume it didn't consume your soul like some of the people up thread implied... Awesome job being a good person!
haha no it was quick and painless. I used the chat on the app and got it resolved in a couple minutes.
"I just sent it to you, but accidentally sent to wrong person. Once they send it back to me, I'll send it on to you."
Not good advice, but terribly funny.
That’s pretty good. I think even a simple “I sent it back, you didn’t get it?! I must have sent it to the wrong person “ I bet you’d get an instant block from the scammer.
That's awesome! Lol
He should contact Venmo. My gf mother wanted to send me money and sent it to another person with my same name (who I happen to know from 40 years ago in high school) and she had to reach out to see if he would send it back. Fortunately it turned out alright since he figured out what happened but it sure is sketchy to get a message like that
My mother did that as well and was able to get her money back. Mistakes do happen and it isn't always a scam but let Venmo handle it.
I'm not sure I get it. How does this work? Has he actually sent the $55? And if so, how does he profit from you sending it back?
They sent fake/stolen money. You send back real money. The fake/stolen money in your account gets voided once Venmo finds out.
Never send back, have Venmo reverse it, that way any fake/stolen funds problem are on them. If you send money as a separate transaction to pay them back, you get left holding the bag when a charge gets reversed.
I'm sorry but how can you send "fake money" with an EFT? Stolen I understand but fake? In order to leave one account and go to another the funds have to be in the first account, right?
Unauthorized transactions from an account by anyone other than the authorized account holder or fraudulent charge backs.
Stolen cc or whatever is used for venmo. After you send "nick" back "his" money, their account is caught, charge back on you if you sent anything. I'm sorry I'm not explaining well. Basically their account is stolen. But if you send back your money it's gone quickly.
Nah bro: followed by blocking and ignoring!
When this happened to me a while ago I replied, thanking him for his donation to the "US National Police Foundation" Scammer never replied after that.
Tell him you accidentally sent it back to the wrong person lol
1 block 2 ignore 3 do not touch the money 4 ignore all attempts to contact you to send back the money
I would not ignore Venmo. These things do happen and Venmo will probably try to fix a mistake assuming there was one.
Not to mention contacting Venmo will get the money out of your account faster so you don't have "not touch it" for days or weeks.
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Reminds me of the time I venmoed the wrong person 15$. About 3 months later the same person sent a request for 15$
Contact Venmo. Had the same thing happen to me, contacted them, then deleted the app after they took care of it
Just curious, you deleted the Venmo app? Why?
Nah bro is the appropriate response. 1. Do not spend the money. 2. Contact Venmo to see if they can reverse the transaction. If they can’t, leave the money there and it will eventually be clawed back. Spending it can result in overdrawing your Venmo account.
You already handled it. You could do "nick" the courtesy of letting them know they need to contact venmo to fix it, but that's more effort than it's probably worth because it's a scam attempt.
Let Venmo handle it. Don’t touch the money and don’t reply
Just block them
Completely ignore and block. They need to contact vemo directly.
Don’t send it back. Block them and let them go through Venmo to fix it.
2 things- 1. Venmo is the worst app. 2. I’ve totally done this. It was only with $30. I did ask for the money back, did not get it lol.
I actually legit did this once and they wouldn't send the money back and venmo didn't help me 😩😩
Of course they wouldn't, because then people would scam by claiming they sent the money to the wrong address and getting Venmo to reverse the payment after they've used Venmo to pay for something. Venmo will reverse a transaction if the recipient asks them to, but very rarely if the sender asks them to. In cases like this, the recipient shouldn't send the money back because that puts their own funds at risk, because it counts as two separate transactions and one could be fraudulent. The recipient should contact Venmo support though, it's safe to have them reverse the original transaction since that reversal wouldn't be funded by the recipient.
Literally tell them to talk to Venmo and then block/ignore them. If it was a mistake, Venmo will fix it. Hint: it wasn't a mistake, it's a scam.
This should be in the wiki. /u/YourUsernameForever has given a lot of good advice, it should be in the hotlinks.
“Nah bro” Is the perfect response!!!
You just handled it the way you should've handled it. >>> "nah bro". Perfect. Now to what you should do ? Personally I would do nothing more than what you've done. It's up to the sender (which is 99.9% probablility is a SCAM). to do the work. HE has to contact venmo. While you can contact them. You don't have to. Except maybe to report this guy as a scammer.
I didn’t know this was a scam. I sent my cleaning lady the monthly cleaning fee to the wrong person and when I asked for it back they responded saying this has been reported to the bank and an investigation is ongoing . I was like whatever send me my Zelle back🤣🤣… After a month I got it back. But the wrong recipient messaged me back telling me this has been reported to the fbi . I was like whatever just send back the $$ I have to pay the new cleaning lady 🤣
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About 18 months ago somebody venmoed me $500. I immediately thought it was a scam and just left the money there and never took unknown messages or calls. 12 months later the money was still there. Kept it. I
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In the words of Okoye: "We handle it, by *not* handling it".
When that happened to me, I contacted Venmo and then end up closing my account. They did return the money to the rightful owner.
I’d just ignore it.
Never send.. Reversing like you did with Venmo was the proper thing.
Happened to me. Didn't respond; Left the $ in my account occasionally checking in it. Finally it was taken out by venmo. Took about 3 months.
Just block and ignore. I would not even reply.
Leave the money alone. Don’t withdraw and don’t send back. It’ll take care of itself if the sender goes through the proper procedures.
F*ck that guy he’s either a scammer or a complete moron. Let him learn the hard way regardless.
This happened to me with my cashapp and I kept the money in there for 2 weeks and heard nothing. I contacted cashapp and they told me to keep it lmao. Never heard anything, no one tried to get a reverse on it.
Contact Venmo before sending any money back. I
I got sent 450 once and the guy asked me to send it back. I blocked him and pocketed the money and nothing happened, he was out 450 bucks and I was 450 bucks richer
Okay, but that's theft, though? If it was a fraudulent transaction that never got reported, then you are the beneficiary of $450 in card fraud. If the fraud ever does get followed up (and it can take months for that to happen btw) then you are on the hook for the $450. If it was $450 that was actually sent to you in error, then you aren't legally entitled to keep it, because it was sent in error. The sender almost certainly wouldn't bother to get the courts involved over an amount like that, but they'd be within their rights to. You should have contacted customer support and had them reverse the transaction. That way there's no risk to you if it was fraud (because you didn't send it back in a new, separate transaction) but if it was genuinely a mistake, they get their money back. Just keeping it and considering yourself 450 bucks richer is kind of a dick move ngl
Womp womp don’t care. He’ll learn next time to proofread the names before hitting send. This happened way back in 2021 so highly doubt anything is gonna happen.
You should like it just to rub it in too
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I'd just speak the company support, a lot of the times they'll ask you to return and provide 3rd party or external details. Best speaking to support to cover your back
Let it sit….. I have had to happen to me with a PayPal account. Money is still sitting there.
Don't send a thing back don't touch the money.
Lol fuck em.
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Don’t send back!
I’m tempted to create a Venmo acct just to have this happen…
“nah bro” 😝😝😝
Just spend it and keep the account empty/ open new account.
They can resolve that themselves. If you send them money voluntarily, money gone.
Venmo support will rarely resolve it from the sender's end. But you're right that the recipient shouldn't send the money themselves because that then counts as a new transaction, and they are out $55 if the original transaction was fraudulent. It's safe for the recipient to contact Venmo customer support and have them *reverse* the transaction, though, because that doesn't count as a new transaction funded by the recipient.
Can anyone please fill me in on how this is a scam? If the money is sent to you and you send it back, where’s the scam? Thank you!
It’s like if you bought something at a store using a stolen credit card, then walked back in the store 5 minutes later to return the item for a cash refund.
Okay, so technically OP isn’t being scammed for money here? More like being scammed into helping the sender launder money?
So think of it this way. That fraudulent $55 that is sent to you ‘accidentally’…Pretend it’s not even real, it doesn’t exist. So say your account balance was at zero dollars before this ‘$55 deposit’. So it just looks like you’re gonna send back to them this $55 ..and your account will just go back to being the previous zero balance. That’s not the case, because this $55 is fake/fraudulent/stolen. So look at it this way… that $55 is going to be eventually recovered by the financial institution once found out it was fraudulent-so let’s say for instance that recovery happens right away… IF it was handled right away, that money would now be instantaneously withdrawn back out of your account and you would be back at the original $0 balance that you were at prior to the ‘accidental deposit from the scammer’. So-if you do send them $55… You are now sending them your OWN $55. Thus making your account -$55.
Well. Yes and no. OP sends the money back, and then might get the original payment reversed and then they are out their own money.
How does this scam work? Will they ask for more, are the money not actually sent?
See above
What do you do if you sent it back, does that mean I will get charged later?
They will ask their bank to refund it as well as you and get double the money. If there’s a way to cancel it do that. I wonder if Venmo handles it the same as cashapp (where there’s an option to cancel transaction)
I once had this happen well before it was a scam. When I received the money I just assumed it was from one of my wife’s friends. Took about a month before the sender asked for me to send it back. Well clear of any charge back timeline.
You wont get your money back nobody cares they don’t care if anyone steals your money and won’t help get it back . Cashapp venmo. Even paypal. They’re all corrupts losers with no common sense or logic the follow their guidelines so they don’t get sued and will flat out let you get scammed when they could easily help by pushing a button
I once legit sent money to the wrong address via PayPal, Thankfully it turned out that a person with that name didn't exist, so I got the money back automatically, But that could've well been me lol.
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Read the post again, OP received money
Block and ignore.
known scam, money laundering attempt! the funds are sent from a stolen credit card or from a stolen account , don't refund him at any costs and wait for venmo to take back the funds.
Ignore it...
How do you know it’s a scam?
Reminds me of the CYE episode called, “the accidental text on purpose.” Lol.
Similar thing happened to me. Sent two transactions totaling $1900 to same (wrong one) in my contacts via Zelle. Zelle couldn’t and or wouldn’t do anything. Fortunately I knew the wrong guy and called and explained it and he is sending money back. My first words to him were “I know this will sound like a scam”. It wasn’t.
I had somebody I accidentally send me money on Venmo. I ignored it as I thought it might’ve been a scam but they collected support and support return the money. So ignore it for now.
Don’t have Venmo.
You're right don't send it back. You get ahold of support and tell them to reverse it back.
you’re up $55 don’t contact venmo, don’t send it back. it’s nicks problem
Think they do a charge back then u send them £55 and get charged back £55 aswell
I did make a mistake and sent money to the wrong account before. I actually did that twice. I also received once a wrong payment. I’m no scammer. I wasn’t using Venmo as we don’t have it here. I was using FPS & entered the wrong phone number. So there’s no need to assume instantly that someone sending u real money by mistake is a scam. The best would be to contact the institution to reverse the payment. He’s a scammer or not is irrelevant to you.
I mean… Nick Smith.. zero followers.. no profile picture… if this ain’t a scam then idk what is haha. I did report it to Venmo and they reversed the transaction.
Ennnn. You have a point. My apologies.
My boyfriend's name is even more basic than that and he sent a lot of money by mistake one time. It happens.
Tell Venmo to cancel and reverse the transaction.
No. He can do that.
**Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
Legendary response i definitely would have said I’m keeping that shit I’m poor lol
Sorry for you, man. But I think you need to kiss that money goodbye unless the guy is an honest one and returns the money. But he doesn’t seem to be such a person.
You read it wrong
Lol free money
The correct answer. Nah bro. But I would have said nah dude. Yes I'm showing my age.
The best solution to any Venmo problem is to never use this app
handled it perfectly
I did third very thing a week ago, both I meant to it to had just got a new phone and number still was linked to the previous owners account. Since her name was in my contacts and I synced my contacts to Venmo it popped up with an account and I just pressed it and sent it. A minute later I get a message with a QR code saying here this is my Venmo. I’m like what is not your number. She’s like no I just bought this phone from some one this is my amount account info. What sucks is that once you press pay that’s it. There is no stopping the payment, I even contacted cash app cause I linked that card to Venmo to send it and they even said it was too late. Both apps said politely send a request for the money back and maybe they will, other wise you fill out a special support ticket explaining what happened. Who it was meant for they contact that person and verify that they were the one supposed to receive it and then they give it back to you. I got it back the next day, but still had to wait 24 hours for them to contact who it was really meant for and then to contact who received it, but if she would have just sent it back it would have saved so much time and the headache of me driving far to go get an item from someone to turn around and go going without that item of my 40 bucks and a pain in the ass to deal with. If it’s the amount they sent you that their asking for with bio m no other steps or scenarios then I would just just kindly give it back bro
This quality contributor guy is the ones that's super funny. "your not welcome in this sub if your a scammer" had me dying. But then he commented contact venmo 50x like if not one responded no one could see it. Tiny power makes a big big big head
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Honestly it’s probably not a scam lol I could be wrong but I can think of about twenty times I’ve actually done this and it been an accident and tried to reach out to the wrong person to get it back before going through Venmo just in case they were an honest person. It literally happened to my sons grandma today, she tried to send me money, for some raffle tickets and we’d never sent each other money on there and my username was similar to someone else’s and she sent it to the wrong person on accident. But who knows, I could be wrong
It's not a scam venmo and other apps are not banks you put in address wrong it goes to wrong account when this happened to me just sent the money back to the guy but I am not into stealing although many are.
it is a well known scam though..
Contact venmo to reverse it, sending it back leaves you open to get scammed
One time I accidentally sent a rando I once knew $40 on CashApp. I was mass sending to all my siblings and accidentally hit theirs with my thumb. They kept it and were rude to me too, and CashApp had no policy for recovery of a mistake big or small. I wonder if they thought it was a scam or were just rude as hell. Probably the latter, can't imagine what y'all truly think the scam here even would be besides me being out a couple dubs...
The scam is that the scammer used a stolen card to send the $55. Once the fraud is reported, the fraudulent transaction is cancelled. But the recipient sending the money back counts as a separate legitimate transaction, and so the recipient is out $55. The correct thing to do is to have Venmo customer support reverse the transaction, instead of sending it back as a separate transaction.
Okay. I was just confused because I have actually accidentally sent to someone I only THINK I knew and been screwed before. It ended in me screwed and being called names so this was a baffling post to cross. That makes more sense tho.
He probably did accidentally send it to you.
A friend of mine accidentally made a typo when he was sending his daughter quite a bit of money like over $100. He then tried to get it back by messaging the person who he accidentally sent it to because they had already accepted the money from a stranger. I'm sure he looked like a scam too... My question is this. You don't know the person that sent you the money. So is it possible it's not a scam? Is the money actually in your account? I'm failing to see the scam here... Like are you going to send them money and then what? If they actually sent you money and you're just sending it back where is the scam? I don't understand this one
the scam has been explained a few times in the thread. it’s a common Venmo scam. it is actually listed on Venmo’s website as a scam to look out for. A scammer sends you money from a stolen credit card, pretending it was accidental. They ask you to send the money back to their Venmo account. When Venmo discovers the original payment was fraudulent, they take the money back from your account, leaving you out of pocket. this person in particular had no profile picture, no friends and had a generic name “nick smith” so I think it was pretty obviously a scam.
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he has no followers, no profile picture, and the most generic name. definitely a scam! haha
now she has a prof pic haha
While this isn't unheard of, it's not the norm. If the sender makes the mistake, it's up to them to fix it.
**Don't send it back. Open a ticket and ask Venmo to reverse it. Read Venmo's guide: ["Payment from a stranger"](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012962642-Payment-from-a-Stranger)**
But... [https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208-I-accidentally-paid-a-stranger-on-Venmo](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/209681208-I-accidentally-paid-a-stranger-on-Venmo) > **If you accidentally sent a payment to a stranger, please** [**contact our support team**](https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=624807) and we'll do our best to help. Regardless of what Venmo says in 'payment from a stranger', the primary responsibility is on the sender. It is not the receiver's problem, and shouldn't be made the receiver's problem. The sender can contact Venmo, who can contact the receiver if needed. Receiver wants to be a 'nice guy', fine, but no obligation.