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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is calling on digital payment apps like Venmo, Zelle and Cash App to strengthen consumer protections in response to the rise in consumer lending. financial app theft in New York City.
“Smartphones themselves are no longer the most lucrative targets for scammers and robbers, but the financial apps on them,” Bragg said in a statement. “With just a few taps, thousands or even tens of thousands can be drained from your financial account in seconds.”
“Without additional protections, customers' financial and physical safety will be at risk. Common sense solutions to thwart scammers and protect New Yorkers' hard-earned money.” We hope these companies will accept our request to discuss the matter,” he added.
Mr. Bragg sent a letter to the CEOs of Cash App, which Mr. Block owns, and PayPal, owner of Venmoand Early Warning Services, which operates Zelle, said his office has encountered several different fraud schemes by fraudsters who exploited victims' digital payment apps.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sent a letter to several major digital payment platform providers asking them to increase security for their users as thefts from these apps increase. (Photo credit: Selcuk Acar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Mr. Bragg urged. digital payment platform Make certain security features the default standard for all users, such as:
- Add a second, separate password to access the app on your phone
- Imposing a floor on total daily remittances to reduce the amount that can be lost
- Large monetary transactions require up to 1 day of latency and secondary authentication
- Increased monitoring takes into account unusual money transfer activity and asks for confirmation when suspicious transactions occur.
Some of these security features are already available to users of the digital payment platforms to which Mr. Bragg sent the letter, but they are not necessarily default settings or available in each app.
Cash App is a subsidiary of Square. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
“Cash App remains committed to investing in areas that build trust with our customers and help create a safe and secure platform,” a Cash App spokesperson told FOX Business in a statement.
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Zelle Network is operated by Early Warning Services, LLC. (Rafael Enrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Zelle's network operator, Early Warning Services, LLC, told FOX Business that the company is “aware of the isolated criminal incident described in the Manhattan District Attorney's letter,” adding, Providing safe and reliable services to people is our top priority.” Company priorities.”
Venmo is powered by PayPal. (Photo illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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A PayPal spokesperson told FOX Business: “PayPal and Venmo take the security of our customers and their information very seriously. In addition to proactively leveraging advanced fraud detection tools and manual investigations, we “We are working closely with law enforcement to protect our customers.” We offer several options to enable an extra layer of security and protection against common scams directly within your app. ”
