NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The peer-to-peer payment service Zelle has begun refunding money to victims of fraud after getting pressured by lawmakers.
The move will be reimbursing victims who lost funds to scammers that impersonated government officials, banks or service providers.
While this can be seen as a big win for consumers, there's not a lot of information right now about how much money will be returned to customers, a timeline or how victims can even request refunds. Policy change went into effect in June.
Banks have historically resisted these types of refunds, arguing that federal rules only require them to issue refunds for money taken out of customer's bank accounts by hackers, as opposed to fraudulent payments customers are duped into authorizing.
Lawmakers found Zelle users lost around $440 million to various types of fraud in 2021 alone. And in most cases, imposter scam victims were rarely reimbursed.
To combat this Zelle has implemented new safety feature that focus on flagging risky transfers of money.
