A few months ago I wrote about the risky use of person-to-person digital payment apps like Venmo, Zelle and Cash App.
Folks are using these apps to pay for everything from babysitters to lawn services. A friend needs to borrow a few dollars, you can get the money to them in just a few minutes. It’s like handing someone cash.
Taking note of the ease-of-use scammers are on the job.
More:Here’s how to tell if your phone has been hacked and what you can do about it
The Better Business Bureau has joined with ComEd to warn of a growing problem. Fraudsters are stealing from ComEd customers via mobile payment apps.
ComEd reports “In January 2022, they received more than 240 reports of scams from customers, a more than 150-percent increase from January 2021. Even worse, the amount of money reported lost to successful scams rose dramatically to more than $27,000 in January 2022, 20 times more than January 2021.”
Scammers are contacting ComEd customers by phone, although some contacts are made by text or email, demanding payment to a particular account under the threat of immediate service disconnection.
This is where the use of the payment apps come into the picture. The con artist will instruct the customer to use a mobile payment app, which often have higher transaction limits than pre-paid cash cards.
Melissa Washington, ComEd’s chief customer officer and senior vice president of customer operations says, “The ease of using mobile pay apps has made the process of scamming…
