P2P payment sites like PayPal, CashApp and Venmo are all great ways to send and receive money for a variety of reasons. Whether you’re getting paid for a job, sending a friend money for lunch, or selling products in an online marketplace, P2P payment sites can be a huge blessing. However, they’re also rife with scams. Here are six of the biggest scams to look out for through P2P payment websites.
1. Account Suspension Scams
If you ever get an email saying that your account has been suspended and you need to log in to verify something, it’s almost certainly a scam. Instead of following any suspicious links in emails, you should log into your account by typing the URL into your address bar. That way, you can make sure you’re on the correct website and check your account for issues.
2. Claim Your Payment Scams
Emails that say you have a payment waiting for you that you need to “claim” are almost exclusively a scam. P2P websites typically don’t require that you claim a payment; when someone sends you a payment, it automatically sends. Again, going to the website yourself can help you see whether this is true or just a scam.
3. Overpayment Scams
This is a unique scam where someone claims that they’ve sent you too much money for the item you’re selling. They then request that you send the overpayment back, typically by an untraceable method like cash or money order, along with the item. Once they receive the overpayment, they file a complaint with the payment website, which will likely take their side, and you’re out the item and the overpayment.
4. Advance Fee Scams
With this scam, you’re promised that a big payment is available for you through the P2P payment website you use. The only catch is that you have to send a small dollar amount as a fee for something. They may claim it’s for paperwork, to prove that you have a valid bank account, or to cover certain transaction fees. However, this is a scam. Unless you already entered a giveaway or contest and this was in the terms and conditions, never send any money to someone asking for it this way.
5. Email Phishing Scams
In an email phishing scam, the individual attempts to make their email look like the P2P website’s official email address so you trust it. Email phishing scams can be part of any of these scams, but it’s also a scam by itself, often alerting you of some “suspicious activity” so you click a link, enter your account credentials, and give them the ability to log into your account. Every time you get an email, check to make sure the account that sent the email is the right email. If you ever have any concerns, just log in directly without clicking any links.
6. Fake Charity Scams
There are many legitimate reasons you might want to donate to charities every day. However, there are also some people who will unfortunately take advantage of individuals’ generosity to try and scam them out of their money. If you’re ever asked to donate to a charity, make sure you check them with a third party to see whether they’re a reputable charity before you give them your hard-earned money.
How To Avoid P2P Payment Scams
P2P payment scams can impact anyone, even people who are very smart, very tech-savvy, or very good at avoiding scams in general. It’s not a question of intelligence, but instead a question of whether you have the tools necessary to avoid scams. One of these tools may be PeopleFinders.
With PeopleFinders, you have the tools necessary to avoid cybercrime, which can be immensely helpful for anyone who does business deals on the internet. From checking individuals’ histories to making sure someone is who they say they are, PeopleFinders makes it possible for anyone to keep themselves safe while buying and selling online.
Conclusion
If you use a P2P payment website of any kind on a regular basis, it’s possible that you might run into a scam. Avoiding these scams isn’t about being “smart enough” but instead about having the tools you need to see through them. These six scams are some of the most common on the internet, but if you’re trying to avoid scams on a day-to-day basis, consider using PeopleFinders to keep yourself a little safer.
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