Four Ways to Prevent Money Transfer Scams
Advancing technology has made our lives easier and more efficient over the years and has changed the way we communicate. Communication via text message or by using messaging apps is commonplace for many people. Technology has also changed the way we are able to handle our money. With instant money transfer services, funds can be sent to someone in real-time and be received instantly. Using these instant transfer services is great for sending money to people that you know very quickly.
Unfortunately, these advancements in technology have also made it easier for scammers to scam many people out of their hard-earned money by utilizing these same services.
Cases of victims being scammed out of money by using an instant transfer service have skyrocketed over the last year. In most of these cases, once the money has been sent to the scammer, the funds are not retrievable, and the victim is out of that money. While these scammers are very good at what they do and what they say to convince their victims to send money, there are ways to prevent yourself from being scammed.
Here are four ways to help prevent money transfer scams:
- Never use instant money transfer services such as Zelle® for sending money to anyone other than family and friends.
- Never send money using an instant transfer service to anyone that you have only spoken to on the phone or video chat. Only send money to people that you have met in person.
- Never use instant money transfer services for paying any kind of utility bills.
- If someone sends you a check and asks you to send some of the money back to them, this is a scam.
Always think twice about sending money to someone when they ask you to send it using one of these instant money transfer services. Keep in mind that like cash, once money has been sent in this way, the only way you can get it back is if the person you sent it to sends it back to you. In many cases, stopping to take your time and think about if a request for money is normal can shut down a scam. If anything about the request for money seems out of place or odd, it usually is and there is nothing wrong with slowing down and questioning the transaction.
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