The fake Zelle or Venmo payment email: a scam aimed at sellers

You list something for sale. A buyer agrees to your price almost immediately, often without asking to see the item, and asks for your email address so they can “send the payment.” Soon an email arrives that looks like it’s from Zelle, Venmo, PayPal or Cash App.

It says the payment is pending or on hold. To release it, you’re told, your account must be upgraded to a business account, and the buyer has supposedly paid extra to cover the upgrade, so you need to send that extra amount back. The buyer then messages you, apologetic but insistent, asking you to hurry.

None of it is real. There was never a payment, and any money you send goes straight to the scammer.

Zelle has told reporters that it will never email or call you to request money. Zelle payments show up in your own bank’s app or website. An email telling you to pay something before you can receive a Zelle payment is fake.

The sender is a free email account, such as a Gmail address, or a look-alike domain that adds words to a payment brand’s name. The email talks about upgrading to a business or merchant account. It asks you to pay, refund or transfer money to receive your payment. It mentions an amount larger than your asking price. It has buttons or links to “confirm” the payment. And it arrives right after a buyer who was in a hurry.

Open the payment app yourself, or for Zelle, your bank’s app, and look at your balance and recent activity. If the money isn’t there, you haven’t been paid. Don’t rely on emails, screenshots or text messages from the buyer as proof, and don’t hand over or ship the item until the payment is in your balance.

Contact your bank or the payment app immediately, report the transfer as fraud, and ask whether it can be stopped or recalled. Report the buyer’s account to the marketplace where you listed the item, and report the scam to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.