Got the Cash App or Venmo? Interesting scam going on.
I’ve seen this a couple of times now in the past week in various forums I follow, it’s an in person scam and it’s a doozie.
Person comes up with a story that doesn’t involve “I need money for xxx” such as “my phone’s dead, I need to message my wife to pick me up because she’s not ever going to answer the phone from a number she doesn’t know.” They hand you car keys, dead phone, something to show they’re not going to run off with your phone.
Little bit of chatting, person appears to message someone, hands you back the phone, thanks you, gets their stuff and leaves. You later find out that because you didn’t set up a PIN or biometric ID they got into your Cash App or Venmo, sent money to a third party (stolen phone,) who sent it to another or bitcoined and chucked it off into the ether.
So yeah, if you can get into either your Venmo or Cash App (or any money sending thing,) and pay someone without it requiring a secondary PIN or bio-metric unlock, don’t hand your phone over for any reason.
Probably don’t hand it over for any reason is the best advice, but go ahead and lock down anything that connects to your banks as well.
