HOUSTON – We are learning more about a huge settlement involving a popular mobile payment app. You could have money coming your way - if you’ve recently used Cash App.
A class-action lawsuit settlement ordered Cash App to pay customers impacted by fraud. Investigator Amy Davis has heard from Houstonians who fell victim to some type of fraud on the app.
RELATED: Cash App ordered to pay $15M in fraud settlement. Here’s how you can submit a claim
Thieves figured out that using the cash app to trick people - can be easy money.
Houston Cash App user accidentally called wrong number for customer service
Sakala Lewis contacted Investigator Amy Davis after losing a lot of money using Cash App and another app service. Lewis uses all of the major payment apps to collect money from people when she does babysitting or pet sitting. She had never had a problem with them until she needed to contact someone with Cash App about a payment that was sent to the wrong account.
“It was a Saturday,” Sakala recounted. “I was with my kids. I was with my mom.”
Like so many of us, Sakala was multitasking. When she couldn’t find a phone number for Cash App on the app, she Googled it. She dialed the number that popped up and she says the man who answered seemed helpful.
“He was very understanding,” she explained to consumer expert Amy Davis. “He said, ‘We’ll take care of this. Just give us a moment. We just need to do a test verification.’”
SEE ALSO: Be aware of scammers post-Hurricane Beryl.
He told her the test verification required her to download the Team Viewer app so he could quote “verify her account was legit.”
“He told me where to click on my Cash App. He wasn’t doing anything, but he was telling me where to click,” Sakala said.
A few seconds into the so-called test, Sakala started getting notifications of money transfers.
“I saw notifications for $250, for $999, for $2,000, for $500,” she said. “So, I went to my bank account and he was saying, ‘Ma’am, you need to stay on Cash App. Please go back to Cash App. Don’t leave Cash App.”
Team Viewer is an app that lets others control your device remotely. The man on the other end of the line wasn’t with Cash App at all but in less than five minutes, he nearly depleted Sakala’s bank account.
“I’m screaming. I’m yelling. I’m upset,” Sakala said, recalling the incident from early August. “He’s calm and he’s saying, ‘We’re gonna figure it out.’ I asked to speak to a manager. She gets on the phone. And she does the exact same thing.”
In all, the scammers took nearly $5,800 from her account. Sakala closed the app and deleted it from her phone. Then she called her bank to dispute the transactions.
She lost $5,800. Cash App did eventually give Lewis her money back but that wasn’t the case for Karen Miller.
Woman loses money during what she thought was job application process
Miller contacted KPRC 2 Investigates when she discovered the fraudster stole thousands of dollars from her online. After a great first interview with a company she found on the job search website Indeed, Karen Miller was invited for a second interview.
“So I thought it was legit, and everything that they were explaining to me seemed legit. I had to fill out a paper for my payroll, all of that seemed legit,” said Miller.
Then things went south.
“We were on Zoom, and then we switched to Microsoft Teams. And they asked me to continue to click different links because their website was down on their end,” she explained.
While waiting, the employer asked her to pay for her background check.
“So in doing that, I used my Cash App. And that’s how they got in. My Cash App was still open on my computer.”
It appears that when clicking the different links as she was asked, Miller was actually allowing someone to hack into her computer.
“And then an hour later, I realized all of our honeymoon funds was actually gone,” said Miller. “$3,500.”
She lost $3,500 and never got that back. But this new class action settlement could change that.
Cash App settlement and how to apply for refund
A group of Cash App users claim Cash App and its owner, Block, were:
- Negligent in responding to two big data breaches
- Didn’t have proper security controls
- Didn’t respond to concerns about fraudulent transactions
RELATED: 3 things to check now if you are using payment apps
Cash App was ordered to pay out $15 million in damages.
If users had unauthorized or fraudulent withdraws or transfers of funds from their Cash App account after August 23, 2018, they are eligible to submit a claim for up to $2,500.
The Claim Form must be submitted no later than November 18, 2024.
Check to see if you are eligible for Cash App refund.