If Someone “Accidently” Sends You Money On Venmo Don’t Send It Back

I and many others have heard of the "Venmo Scam" before. Someone may send you a request for money asking you for help, or maybe even claim that you owe them money, that being said I was surprised that the first ever Venmo Scam I'd see was one where someone sent me money first.

Thankfully, I knew it was a scam when I received $100 from a stranger. Once you receive the money, the sender will harass you to send it back to them claiming it was an accident. Sometimes these people will send as much as $1000. Even though you might not be able to avoid these scam, the key is to not send it back.

Handling money is always stressful, and with these scammers basically yelling at you over Venmo makes you just want to get it over with, and send the money back. But, that's the catch, you aren't actually sending them their money back, you are sending them money out of your account.

Venmo has a feature that allows people to cancel payments if needed so that in the event you send money and it ends up being a scam, you can easily cancel the payment. Ironically scammers are now sending YOU money, asking for you to send it back, and then canceling their original payment. This allows them to get their money back and get yours since it will now be harder for you to cancel your payment.

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If you don't respond, the scammer will most likely just cancel the payment and move on to their next victim. In the end, it's best to just let the money sit, or even better, contact Venmo directly telling them about the scam.