Feds looking into how banks handle Zelle scams: Report
- Zelle isn’t required to refund spending that customers authorized
- CFPB wants to know how banks screen for scammers
- Zelle does refund money to victims of scammers impersonating banks, govt. agencies
The Zelle logo on a smartphone arranged in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Early Warning Services LLC, the payments company jointly owned by banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. and operates the Zelle money-transfer service, is developing a digital wallet in an effort to challenge PayPal Holdings Inc.s dominance in online payments. Photographer: Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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(NewsNation) — It’s one thing to be the victim of online theft. Most banks will make good on unauthorized transactions. It’s another thing to freely give money to someone who turns out to be a scammer.
Usually, in those cases, banks are not so willing to make you whole.
But that may change. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is investigating how some banks deal with customers who are the victims of online scammers, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
The focus of the CFPB probe is Zelle, the peer-to-peer payment platform owned by seven major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America.
Banks are required to refund customers for unauthorized transactions, but there are no protections for customers who send the money themselves.
The CFPB investigation is, in part, looking at whether banks are being proactive enough in vetting and identifying customers who turn out to be scammers, and shutting down their accounts.
Banks have stepped up their warnings about sending money to strangers.
And, for nearly a year, Zelle has required its member banks to reimburse customers for transactions in which scammers impersonate a bank or a government agency – even if the customer authorized the payment.
Zelle was founded in 2017 to compete with popular money transfer services like Venmo and PayPal. Now, it handles transactions worth more than those of Venmo.
