There are plenty of dangers associated with online shopping. User-driven platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace are hotspots for scammers trying to tell fake products or not shop the items.
If that isn’t enough to put you off from shopping online, several other scams can be more damaging to your wallet. Cybercriminals will often go out of their way to launch sophisticated phishing scams to make a quick buck.
Read on for the latest online payment scam that is spreading fast and how you can prevent falling victim to it.
Here’s the backstory
It’s not all bad when it comes to shopping online. There are a few benefits, like having the option to pay through several outlets. Besides Visa or Mastercard, shoppers can often pay through PayPal or Venmo.
But if Zelle is your preferred method, you might want to double-check any communication from the platform. A new scam targets Zelle app users, and one victim lost as much as $3,500 to cybercriminals.
The methods used can differ, but the most common tactic is criminals impersonating Zelle agents. This is done through spoofing mobile numbers or emails so that the Caller ID on the victim’s phone or sender’s email address shows a Zelle contact.
The scammers will claim that a payment you attempted to make didn’t go through or another issue requiring…
