Beware of Venmo

Venmo is Similar to PayPal. It’s simply an app for sending money.
 
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Hmmn. Yes and No. Paypal ACQUIRED Venmo. Venmo is supposed to be used by people for things like splitting bills for tickets, dinners, etc. The one article claimed that Venmo said that they had violated policy because "they're getting money in exchange for goods".
 
Brett C said:
So it’s an app for sending money electronically, correct?
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I suppose we could continue to argue the semantics. Paypal was designed to pay merchants to buy stuff. Venmo was designed so friends could reimburse each other easily. And, yes, both systems send money electronically.
 
I’m unsure what you’re arguing. You said you weren’t familiar with it before this post and I said it’s an app to send money. That’s what it does right? I didn’t go into it’s policies etc. I just stated it’s role so those who dont know what it is now does. A simple clarification of its role.

Now I guess if you disagree that it’s an app to send money then I guess we’d be debating.
 
Minor thread derailment in progress.
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"For two weeks now, there has been an ongoing scam that caused twenty people from LA to lose thousands of dollars in camera gear. A user under the name “Andy Mai” uses Facebook Marketplace and Venmo payment system to pull the scam and steal the gear.

Four victims of the scam have been verified, and in total they lost $25,000. However, after two sellers shared their story, it turned out that there may be as many as 20 scammed people, with the total loss of as much as $100,000. As it turns out, the scam occurs mainly because the sellers are unfamiliar with the Venmo’s policy, And in addition to this, the scammer(s) keep making new accounts and pulling off the same scam all over again."

I think that may be a valid point about not using Venmo to make purchases. Paypal offers some path to a resolution, file a claim, etc.. Venmo, based on the scammers choice to use it over Paypal, may have absolutely no vetting or resolution/claim process leaving the victims completely on their own. I do need to validate this though.
 
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https://venmo.com/about/security/

Bold is mine.

"Venmo is designed for payments between friends and people who trust each other. Avoid payments to people you don't know, especially if it involves a sale for goods and services (like event tickets and Craigslist items). These payments are potentially high risk, and you could lose your money without getting what you paid for. Venmo does not offer buyer or seller protection. Business usage of Venmo requires an application and explicit authorization. For more information, please see section C(1)(b) of our User Agreement."
 
Venmo is not secure like paypal. Venmo should only be accepted from people you know and trust because the payer can cancel the transaction without the payee knowing. They payments are not immediate so if you accept funds for goods through venmo, you may not get the money, this is why this scam works.
 
You can send money directly, person-to-person, and instantly to and from nearly every bank with just an email address or phone number. I don't understand why anyone continues to put in extra unnecessary work just to let middle men take a cut (or worse, as the scumbag thieves at PayPal have done to me). PayPal, MoneyBookers, Venmo, whatever...it's high time we ran all of these crooks out of business and stopped using their services.
 
Chazz Layne said:
You can send money directly, person-to-person, and instantly to and from nearly every bank with just an email address or phone number. I don't understand why anyone continues to put in extra unnecessary work just to let middle men take a cut (or worse, as the scumbag thieves at PayPal have done to me). PayPal, MoneyBookers, Venmo, whatever...it's high time we ran all of these crooks out of business and stopped using their services.
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My bank uses Zellepay to do that. Person-to-person transfer via email or phone.

Zelle is owned by Early Warning Services LLC. Who is in turn owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. So to swap from PayPay would seem to be out of the hands on one crook and into the hands of many.

Using Zelle for a business is also prohibited by their user service agreement.

"The Service is intended for personal, not business or commercial use. You agree that you will not use the Service to send or receive payments in connection with your business or commercial enterprise. We reserve the right to decline your registration if we believe that you are registering to use the Service with your business account or to receive business or commercial payments. We further reserve the right to suspend or terminate your use of the Service if we believe that you are using the Service for business or commercial purposes, or for any unlawful purpose of the uses identified directly below."
 
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What I’m getting from reading all of this and reading the policies, Is if you use Venmo as it is intended and per their policy you are perfectly fine. So moral of the story use it as intended
 
jbezorg said:
My bank uses Zellepay to do that. Person-to-person transfer via email or phone.

Zelle is owned by Early Warning Services LLC. Who is in turn owned by Bank of America, BB&T, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, US Bank, and Wells Fargo. So to swap from PayPay would seem to be out of the hands on one crook and into the hands of many.
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They all use "Zelle" to do it, which is the friendly marketing name they gave the network they all built together (bonus points if anyone remembers what it was called in the early days).

And no, it's actually putting it in LESS hands, and only the hands of the folks your money is already with (the actual banks). Sure, they're crooks too, but at least they're honest about it... :D
 
Chazz Layne said:
(bonus points if anyone remembers what it was called in the early days)
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I cheated but I had to know. At one time Verizon had their own payment service and blocked Google Wallet and I was wondering if it was the same.
 
Dave said:
This.
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I don't trust "the man" either, especially when it comes to Internet and technology stuff. That's why I run my own email servers, etc.

Doesn't mean I don't use things like PayPal, but "Trust yet verify"

I also generally am the last person on the bandwagon of "Oooh Shiny!", which gets me a lot of strange looks from other "tech-savvy" people, but I also tend to have fewer issues than them as well...
 
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