P2P payment sites like PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp are definitely a godsend to the people who are looking for a simple and easy way to pay their friends. However, some of these apps also have usefulness for being paid for jobs and even selling products. No matter who you’re sending money to, here are five scams to be aware of on these types of sites.
5 Scams to Be Aware of on P2P Payment Sites
1. Account Suspension Scams
This is a classic email phishing scam. Someone will send you an email claiming that your account has been suspended, and you need to log in to help the company “verify” your information. If you click the link in the email, however, you’ll be directed to a fake login page, which will just steal your login information.
2. “Claim Your Payment” Scams
Especially today, P2P payment websites very rarely need you to do anything to claim a payment. Instead, the payment automatically gets added to your account. If you get an email or text notifying you that you need to do something to “claim your payment,” it’s almost always a scam. Just log in by typing the website URL into your web browser to determine whether or not you actually need to do anything.
3. Overpayment Scams
This is a scam to look out for if you’re selling anything online. In this scam, someone will send you too much money for something you’re selling. They’ll request that you send the overpayment back, along with the item they purchased. Once they receive the item and the overpayment, they lodge a complaint with the service for their original payment, which means you’re out the original money, the overpayment, and the item.
4. Advance Fee Scams
This is a type of scam that promises a payoff as long as you send them a bit of money first. That money may be to “prove you have an active bank account” or to pay for alleged fees. Either way, the money you send them will never turn into anything; they’ll just disappear as soon as you’ve paid the extra fees they were requesting.
5. Fake Charity Scams
Charities are a great way to make a difference in other people’s lives, but it’s important that you make sure you’re donating to a legitimate charity. Unfortunately, many scammers have impersonated charities or completely made charities up to get your money. If you want to donate to a charity with a P2P site, check both the charity and the account you’re sending money to.
Conclusion
P2P payment sites are definitely a great way to send money to friends and family, but the ease of sending money also means that it’s possible to scam people fairly easily. The good news is that with a bit of information, you can be much better at spotting these types of scams. As long as you’re knowledgeable about what types of scams proliferate on these kinds of payment sites, it’ll be much easier for you to avoid them.
