What to Do If a Stranger Sends You Money on Venmo
Peer-to-peer payment apps make it easy to split an account with friends. But that ease of sending and requesting money at the touch of a button on a touchscreen can get complicated if things don’t go according to plan.
Reddit user equkelly reported yesterday that someone they didn’t know sent them $ 1,000 on Venmo. “I don’t know who this person is, and I assume he sent it to the wrong user,” they wrote to r / personalfinance.
Several users quickly recommended that the original poster should not simply return money through Venmo, but instead contact Venmo to have the company manually initiate a refund. This is what the poster ended up doing, but other suggestions ranged from sending it back to doing nothing and having the sender initiate a return – and then still doing nothing and waiting for Venmo to intervene.
This is certainly a confusing situation, and it is not unlike the recent case where the couple discovered thousands of additional dollars in their bank account. But this couple went and spent the money, which is definitely not the best course of action.
What to do with your Venmo Mystery Money
So what should you do if you receive a notification that someone you don’t know has dropped money into your Venmo account? Assuming you’re not publicly asking strangers to send you money , should you initiate a refund? Notify Venmo?
A Venmo representative via email advised that if you suspect you have been attacked by a scammer through the app, please contact Venmo’s support team immediately.
In addition, the Venmo FAQ has the following instructions :
What if I receive payment from a stranger?
If you receive a payment from someone you don’t know, you can simply send the payment back to the other user with a note explaining that he paid the wrong person. You can also contact us to cancel a payment made by someone else for you.
While the FTC tends to be aware of the latest and greatest scam attempts, it has no record of attempts to move money through unsuspecting Venmo users. I contacted them to find out how common Venmo scam could be and will update this post if I get a response.
What to do if you sent money to the wrong person
In the meantime, what if you sent money to the wrong person? You are not a fraud, you are simply mistaken. There was an episode on the Planet Money podcast about this in which someone is caught in digital uncertainty worth $ 1,500 because they misspelled their username. Stephen got the money, not Stephen.
Planet Money explained that with a credit card, you must request a refund to correct the error. But there is nothing traditional about peer-to-peer payment systems! While Venmo can step in to help, the app relies on users to resolve issues themselves first. Here’s what Venmo’s support page has to say about these situations:
What if I paid the wrong person?
Send them a request for payment of the same amount with a note asking them to return the money you sent by mistake.
If you haven’t received a response from them or need help submitting a payment request, please see this article to find out how to contact us. We will be happy to help!
A Venmo spokesperson noted that it has several systems in place to prevent errors. If you try to send money to someone you are not connected to through the app, you will receive an alert asking if you are sure you want to send funds. You can also check a person by their avatar or scan their Venmo code if you are together at the time.
If you’re stuck in the peer-to-peer payments fiasco, let us know in the comments. What have you done to fix this?