Banks have argued that in cases of fraud - meaning a customer's account becomes compromised somehow and they send an unauthorized payment - they do reimburse customers. A group of Democratic senators asked for usage data on Zelle after the Times' report.īanks are required under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act to repay customers when funds are illegally taken out of their account without authorization. Early Warning Systems has previously said that 99.9% of all transactions happen without complaints of fraud or scams. But those stories cited mostly anecdotal evidence. The cases of growing fraud and scams at Zelle have been highlighted in previous news reports, including two by The New York Times. Once money is sent via Zelle, it requires a bank's intervention to attempt to get that money back. But the service has also grown more popular with scammers and criminals. More than 1,700 banks and credit unions offer the service. The service allows a bank customer to instantaneously send money to a person via their email or phone number, and it will go from one bank account to another. Zelle is the banking industry’s answer to the growing popularity of peer-to-peer payment services like PayPal, Venmo and the Cash App. Almost $500 billion in funds were sent via Zelle in 2021, according to Early Warning Systems, the company that operates Zelle. Since being launched in June 2017, Zelle has become a popular way for bank customers to send money to friends and family. In only roughly 3,500 cases did those banks reimburse the customer, the report found.įurther, in the cases where it's clear funds had been taken out of customers' account without authorization, only 47% of those dollars were ever reimbursed. The report cites data from four banks that tallied 192,878 cases worth collectively $213.8 million in 2021 and the first half of 2022 where a customer claimed they had been fraudulently tricked into making a payment. Warren, D-Massachusetts, a long-time critic of the big banks, requested data on fraud and scams on Zelle from seven banks starting in April. For instance, less than half of the money customers reported being sent via Zelle without authorization was being reimbursed. The report also found that the large banks that partly own Zelle have been reluctant to compensate customers who have been victims of fraud or scams.

Elizabeth Warren, giving the public its first glimpse into the growing problems at Zelle. NEW YORK (AP) - Incidents of fraud and scams are occurring more often on the popular peer-to-peer payment service Zelle, according to a report issued Monday by the office of Sen.

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