Don't Lose Money to these 9 CashApp Scams
Author: Nichlaus O.
CashApp is a mobile money application that offers convenient and instant sending and receiving money. This smartphone app brings ease and convenience to its users in money transfers. By 2020, CashApp had 36 million monthly users.
It is important to note that the platform has no phone customer support. Only email, direct message and in-app support. Another critical thing is that transfers happen instantly and are usually irreversible!
Scammers have exploited the weaknesses in CashApp and the information gaps among users to run a couple of scams.
9 Common CashApp Scams
Money Flipping
This is a get-rich-quick scheme given a good name. The scam involves promises of growing your money fast by some unclear method. Scammers place ads on the socials: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram mostly. Others are bold enough to send you a direct text message. If you respond to their messages or ads, they will send a list showing what you gain from the money amounts you send.
Now, to make you “flip” more money they make sure that the first few amounts you send them through CashApp come back in the amounts promised. Since anyone willing to try will put in small amounts first to see if it actually works. Sure enough, you get your money back with the added amount as advertised.
The goal of this scam is to build your confidence to get you to send bigger amounts. Once you send a larger amount, say $1,000, the scammers will withdraw and go silent.
Payment Claiming
You get a message that looks to be from CashApp which asks you to claim your payment. Apparently, there is a payment from CashApp that is due to be made to youbut not clear why. But all that you need to do is send a small amount of $2 to $5 to claim your payment.
Once you send your small payment to claim the bigger payment, that’s it! It will never come. You have just fallen victim to an advance fee scam!
Cash Circle Scam
A pyramid scheme by another name still rips you off. This is a clever “Ponzi” scheme run by scammers that promises to add your money to a cycle for growth. It works by promising to grow your money in a pool of funds and you get it back with interest at a later date.
The cycle will never get to you and your turn will never come. It’s a “Ponzi” scheme!
Friday Giveaways
Buying raffle tickets for a final draw? DO NOT do it on social media on Fridays. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram usually get swamped on Friday with ads about CashApp giveaways. And though the entry may just be $1, you will never ever win! You’ll be forgiven for thinking it’s your bad luck. But its more.
Scammers run this con and collect huge payments on CashApp. The real CashApp Sweepstakes requires no pay for you to enter! And the company never ask for your personal details. If you are on CashApp, that is enough for entry!
App and Video Downloads for Pay
Some clever scammers have come up with ways of getting you to download their apps and videos by promising payment through CashApp. Some claim to pay up to $50 for watching 3 videos. The app download links do not actually download apps but just open their own links for promotion.
Pet Deposit
The scammer places ads for purebred cats and dogs on sale at ridiculously low prices. The minute you see the ad and make an inquiry, they respond swiftly asking that you make a deposit through CashApp for them to reserve the pet for you.
If you do, you will never actually receive your pet nor your money back. That was purely a clever pet scam.
Fake Purchases
P2P services that CashApp offers are not to be taken as a normal means of payment. Whenever you are buying anything online and the seller insists on paying through CashApp before delivery, chances are that it’s a scam.
As a general rule, do not make an advance payment for any product before verifying it. Take all insistence to pay via CashApp before receipt of goods as a possible scam. And DO NOT do it.
Fake Customer Support
That CashApp does not have call support service continues to work to the disadvantage of their users. Users fell for calls from CashApp customer support asking for their PIN, sign-in code or bank details.
One user was asked to follow a link and download software to help solve a problem and got her CashApp account cleaned out!
CashApp communicates mainly through email and inside the app. The company never asks for personal account information.
How to Use CashApp Safely
- Only send money to recipients that you know and trust. Also, verify and double check every detail of the recipient before sending money.
- CashApp never asks for your personal security information like PIN, sign-in code or bank details. Scammers ask for these details to get access to your account and drain your funds.
- DO NOT respond to voice calls on anything about your CashApp account. Instead, report such cases to CashApp(link). Currently there is no call support by CashApp.
- Change your CashApp PIN immediately you sense any suspicious activity on the app.
- NEVER do advance payments via CashApp for goods that are yet to be delivered. In case it is a scam, the transaction cannot be reversed.
- Learn to recognize genuine CashApp emails that end with:
- @cash.app,
- @square.com and,
- @squareup.com
In Case You Get Scammed
Report the incident to:
- cash.app/contact
- Federal Trade commission- FTC
Report a Scam!
Have you fallen for a hoax, bought a fake product? Report the site and warn others!
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