Troy Conover and his friends are pretty resourceful.
The three teens had a goal for this summer: To earn enough money — about $1,000 — to buy a small fishing boat that together, they would share, maintain and store for the off-season.
“We have all done some side hustles, like refereeing hockey games, mowing lawns, getting birthday money,” said Conover, 14, of Westfield. He also set aside what he called “generous” gifts from his eighth grade graduation to use towards the vessel.
Looking for other ways to earn a buck, he listed a computer for sale on Facebook.
That’s how he got fooled in a Zelle scam involving his Bank of America checking account. His mother said it is a joint account because he is a minor.
Zelle is a money transfer service run by Early Warning Systems, a company created by several of the nation’s largest banks, including Bank of America. Zelle handled more than $490 billion in transactions in 2021, doubling its nearest competitor, Venmo. And in 2020, nearly 18 million Americans were defrauded in scams involving money transfer apps like Zelle, according to Javelin Strategy & Research.
When he put his computer online for sale, Conover said he found a buyer willing to pay the $500 price tag on Aug. 3.
Soon after, he received an email from zellepaysreceipteam@gmail.com, which was supposedly from Zelle but it was actually from the con artist. (Our messages sent to that email were returned as undeliverable.) The email told Conover that Zelle was unable…
