Scammers Using Zelle to Trick Buyers in Fraudulent Transactions

Scammers have taken to Zelle, the Venmo alternative backed by U.S. banks, to defraud consumers who believe the service includes the same protections they’ve come to expect from PayPal. A number of customers report having lost hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, over Zelle, when they used it for transactions with people they didn’t know -- like tickets bought off a Craigslist posting, for example.