Scams targeting users of mobile payment apps such as Cash App, QuickPay, Venmo and Zelle are surging, the Better Business Bureau and Illinois utility Commonwealth Edison warned Thursday (Feb. 24).
ComEd customers alone reported being scammed out of at least $27,000 in January 2022, the utility and consumer protection group reported. The sum was more than 20 times that stolen during payment app fraud from the same customer population in January 2021, according to the warning.
“The ease of using mobile pay apps has made the process of scamming customers more efficient for imposters,” Melissa Washington, ComEd’s chief customer officer and senior vice president of customer operations, said in a prepared statement. “As scammers alter their schemes, ComEd will be there to alert customers of the latest attempts to con them out of money and personal information.”