By Denise Groene
Special to the Tribune dgroene@bbbinc.org
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is warning consumers about recently reported incidents of the “pay yourself scam.” Using the Zelle money transfer system, crooks have come up with a new twist on the old rip-off scheme in which they impersonate your bank or credit union.
By now most consumers are used to getting fake emails and texts that claim to be from a well-known financial institution. (An easy give-away that such messages are scam attempts is the fact that the bank they say they are representing is not one that you do business with.) They may be asking you to verify your log-in, account number or other such personal information. Some will say there has been suspicious activity with your account. All are meant to set off alarm bells thereby demanding a quick and panicked response from you. Apparently, these crooks randomly get enough reactions from people to make the scam worth their efforts.
How the new twist on the scam works Now come reports that thieves are using Zelle to alarm people into giving up their information. Zelle is a Venmo-type transfer service used by several major banks. Here’s how the new scheme works:
• You receive a text or email that seems to be a fraud alert about unusual new activity. An example: “Did you make a purchase of $100 at such-and-such merchant?”
• If you answer them, you soon get a call from a number that appears to be from a bank, using…
