The Newspaper of Record since 1878
In the last few years, scam callers have been using the electronic person-to-person payment service Zelle to drain money from consumers’ bank accounts. It appears these scams have reached the Cobre Valley, and the community should be aware of such fraudulent phone calls.
Typically, the scammer claims to be from a bank – possibly a bank other than the intended victim’s. Consumers should be suspicious of callers who claim to be from a bank other than their own, though the call may come from a spoofed phone number that seems legitimate.
The intended victim is told there have been suspicious transactions on their account, for amounts the scammer specifies. The scammer then provides a phone number, purportedly to the consumer’s bank, where those transactions can be disputed. Upon calling, the intended victim is instructed to make a Zelle transfer – supposedly to return the funds to their account. However, the funds are transferred to the scammer instead.
The best protection against such scams is not using Zelle to send money to an unknown person, especially if they claim the situation is urgent and threaten consequences. Consumers should not respond to such calls or share their two-factor authentication passcode with anyone but should call their bank at a number they know is legitimate and ask a representative to review recent account activity.
Consumers who have fallen victim to a Zelle scam should contact their bank as soon as possible to report the loss of funds, as well as filing a report with the local police department. If a bank refuses to return the lost funds, a complaint can be filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/, which will be forwarded to the bank to respond.
