While Chase didn't share what exactly prompted this decision, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) sued Early Warning Services (Zelle's operator) and three of its owner banks (Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo) in December for rushing the service into the market to compete with other payments platforms like Venmo and CashApp and failing to implement adequate consumer safeguards. JPMorgan Chase Bank (Chase) will soon start blocking Zelle payments to social media contacts to combat a significant rise in online scams utilizing the service for fraud. In response to these worrying statistics, the bank added that starting March 23, it would begin delaying, declining, or blocking Zelle payments to accounts if they were identified as originating from social media contact. According to scam reports from Chase customers who filed Zelle or wire transfer claims between June and December 2024, almost 50% of all reported scams originated on social media. "For your protection, Chase will not allow you to send Zelle payments identified as originating from contact through social media. We'll decline those transactions because Zelle is meant to pay friends, family and other trusted recipients you know, not for others you meet on social media," the bank warned. According to CFPB's lawsuit, this resulted in hundreds of thousands of Zelle and bank customers losing over $870 million since the payment service was launched. Zelle is a highly popular digital payments network that allows users to transfer money quickly and securely between bank accounts.
This Cyber News was published on www.bleepingcomputer.com. Publication date: Mon, 17 Feb 2025 20:30:07 +0000