Thousands of victims of scams through the Zelle application in the United States have finally received their financial compensation, totaling over $2.6 billion. The thefts were orchestrated by hackers targeting different banks linked to the electronic payment platform, deceiving victims by posing as government agencies, banks, or existing service providers.
Zelle recently announced a new benefit to help victims recover their money, but details are scarce, raising concerns that hackers could exploit this new feature for “self-payment.”
Ben Chance, director of fraud risk at EWS, commented on the situation, stating that it has surpassed existing legal and regulatory requirements. He also mentioned the difficulties faced by banks in such cases, especially when clients themselves transfer funds to false recipients. However, all bank branches have policies in place to refund stolen funds to their rightful owners.
The issue has caught the attention of U.S. legislators, with Elizabeth Warren calling for long-overdue changes to the Zelle platform to protect consumers from such scams. Despite the platform’s popularity for electronic transfers and payments, it has been targeted by numerous cyberattacks, with Zelle users losing over $440 million to scams in 2021 alone.