How to Report Venmo Identity Theft

Currently, you can pay for anything without having to use your wallet—and money-transfer apps such as Venmo have come in handy to help you transact easily. Nevertheless, the convenience of using Venmo may also come with a fair share of risk since you can fall victim to . This is because Venmo is considered safe only if the proper precautions are carefully taken.

Alongside encrypting your financial transactions and information, Venmo offers other layers of security, such as multifactor authentication and pins. They recommend activating all of these features to keep your personal information safe. Notwithstanding, one downside of Venmo is that in case of theft, they treat money like cash. Once your cash has been transferred to a fraudster, it's almost impossible to recoup the loss, and this is why it's crucial to take all the necessary precautions.

If you fall victim to a Venmo scam or identity theft, you should report it immediately, and this is where DoNotPay comes in handy. Alongside Venmo, we'll also help you report Experian, IRS, Equifax, Social Security identity thefts, among others.

What Is Identity Theft?

Identity theft is where an individual steals your personal data, such as your driver's license or your Social Security number, and then uses it without your authorization. The imposter can use the information to open new accounts or even use it to gain access and take control of one or more of your accounts without your permission or knowledge.

With your credentials, they can use the account just like you would, probably using it to transfer cash, gain access to additional accounts, or conduct fraudulent transactions that can land you in trouble.

What to Do if Your Identity Gets Stolen

If you fall victim to , you should:

Report the incident to Venmo Security Support with immediate effect.
Change your Venmo account password as well as protect your other accounts.
Report to Federal Trade Commission
Contact your bank so that they reverse charges in case your Venmo account is linked with your credit card.
Contact your local authorities to inform them that you were scammed.

How to Prevent Venmo Identity Theft

Here are some strategies to help secure your Venmo account from fraudsters.

Choose a unique and strong password

When setting up a Venmo account password, stay away from passwords that may be easy to guess. Use both upper and lowercase letters, special symbols, and numbers. Other than choosing a complete word, you can go for a unique acronym or phrase, making it so hard for fraudsters to guess.

Enable PIN protection as well as multifactor authentication

These two steps only take a few minutes to complete, but they can be very helpful in securing your Venmo account if your mobile device gets lost or stolen. Ensure that you also have a lock or password for your phone.

Link credit cards instead of debit cards

Venmo permits you to link both credit and debit cards to be used as payment methods in your account. You're better off with a credit card than a debit card when it comes to security since credit cards have more protections governing fraud than debit cards.

Only deal with trusted payees and payers

Venmo always advises that you only send and receive cash from friends and family you know and trust. If you're transacting with a stranger, the transaction could be much riskier.

Use push notifications to monitor Venmo account activity constantly

Setting up alerts could help you keep tabs on your account as well as notify you when money moves in or out. Activating email notifications helps you know if a login was attempted on top of payment and charges. Nevertheless, you can also set push and text notifications to help you know when payments are received or sent and much more.

Avoid using public WI-Fi

If you're receiving or sending money via Venmo anywhere other than your home, ensure you're using a secured WI-Fi network to do so. This is because using public WI-Fi could potentially expose your account credentials to hackers if they're also able to tap into the network.

Don't stay logged in

Sometimes it's hard to remember to log out of Venmo after every session, but logging out ends your session and can minimize the odds of someone stealing your information.