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Zelle Business Account Scams on Facebook - Upgrade to Receive Payment

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Jun 9, 2022 2022-06-09T08:21:12-05:00
Aug 12, 2022 2022-08-12T07:42:26-05:00

Zelle Business Account Scams on Facebook - Upgrade to Receive Payment

Scammers are contacting potential victims in the Facebook Marketplace asking them to buy their products. The scammers will claim they only use Zelle and instead of using the Zelle app, the scammers will send potential victims Zelle email scams like the ones below regarding payment and account upgrades from fake Zelle email accounts.

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Zelle Business Account Scam Emails

How to Determine if Someone is Attempting to Scam You

scammers will claim they only use Zelle for payment
you receive Zelle transaction information via email only, not via the Zelle app, and the Zelle app shows absolutely NO transactions
the email is sent from an AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or from other none official Zelle email addresses
email claim you need to send an extra money so your Zelle app will be upgraded to a business account. Payment apps like Zelle do NOT ask buyers to upgrade account in order to receive payments.
you are asked to send money with the promise of a refund.

Sellers on Facebook Marketplace should pay attention to details if they are asked to use Zelle or other payment apps or platforms, so they are not scammed out of their hardearned money.

If you have been a victim of the Zelle Business Account scam or someone attempted to scam you, please share your experince in a comment below to help inform others.

Check the comment section below for additional information, share what you know, or ask a question about this article by leaving a comment below.

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Comments 11

Oct 23, 2023 at 1:38 PM by an anonymous user from: Groveland, Florida, United States

Just ran into the same thing. Someone wanting to buy one of the hot tubs we represent, contacting me from a FB Marketplace listing. Insisted on using Zelle (which I don't really like, anyway, and which connects to a personal, not business account). Started the transaction and then got a message similar to what is above, but for $300 to be the extra payment. Didn't seem right to me. The supposed buyer asked if I could be trusted to refund the money, and in that time I did a mouse-over on the email sending address and saw it was a GMail address. Along with some glitches in the English in the message and the nature of the request, I had no doubt this was a scam, and told the alleged buyer as much. Oh, they were so disbelieving they got busted!

I don't think FB cares much about stopping this kind of scam. All you can do is report the person, with no provision for describing the nature of the scam. And my bank only takes fraud reports by phone, not email, and I don't feel inclined to sit on hold for their convenience. This is the state of things more and more today.

If you run into a purported buyer on FB named Va -- who appears to be in China, if I had to guess -- don't deal with them. The place is lousy with fraudsters, and suspicion and caution should be the default mode in dealing with unknown parties.

Thanks for this great explanation how the scam works.

Nov 17, 2022 at 9:40 PM by an anonymous user from: Anne Arundel County, Crownsville, Maryland, United States

I used fb marketplace before and something was off from the beginning. He asked what bank. Then asked for my email and full name something is never been asked before but my husband was like no it’s normal but then the email I got really didn’t sit right no one is sending me more than an item is worth. I reported him and deactivated my Zelle just in case.

Oct 17, 2022 at 8:15 PM by an anonymous user from: DeKalb, Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Trying to sell items this is the second time someone tried this scam on me
The first I actually called Zelle customer service and they told me it was a scam attempt so when it popped up again I knew right away.
It's men, women young and old. Don't be fooled and if you don't think it's right call customer service like I did.

Oct 4, 2022 at 8:27 PM by an anonymous user from: Downtown Redmond, Redmond, Washington, United States

I was almost a victim of this scam, fortunately the final step to send the money I hesitated and found this site. Facebook market place is where they are.

Oct 3, 2022 at 8:56 AM by an anonymous user from: East Carroll Parish, Roosevelt, Louisiana, United States

I was scammed in the same way and lost 500 dollars in this process and they asked for more 450 dollars and didn’t pay them and blocked the user in Facebook.

Aug 11, 2022 at 8:01 AM by an anonymous user from: Henniker, Weare, New Hampshire, United States

I got the email request to upgrade my zelle to business. I refused and the scammer called me a fool, so I blocked him on facebook. The email request he sent looks like a fake. I was lucky

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