Greetings!

I made an error sending money through Zelle and am looking for help or advice on how I might be able to get the other person to return my money.

First of all, there is nobody to blame for this happening but me. My problem is that the person who received the funds in error will not return them. Some additional advice is to not use Zelle when purchasing large ticket items over the internet.

I am purchasing a firearm and agreed to send the money to the seller using Zelle. Zelle uses a persons email or cell number to transfer funds directly from one associated bank account to another. My problem is that I transposed 2 digits and sent $1,300.00 to the wrong cell number/person.

I realized the error within 5 minutes and atttempted to cancel the transfer but the erroneous cell person had a Zelle account and it was deposited into their bank within 1 minute of my sending it.

I have reached out to my bank to dispute the transfer but am told that my chances are slim to none that they will be able to accomplish this and that my best bet is to contact the person and ask them to return the money.

The only information I have on the person is their phone number and a possible first name of
Maria. I called the person and she claimed to be confused about my call and asked if she could call me back after checking with her bank. I agreed. I have received no callback and my phone number has now been blocked.

I'm looking for a way to identify who Maria is and possibly her address. I'm not sure where I go from there but I intend to start calling "Maria" from my deidentified cell regularly and at very odd hours.

Looking for any LEGAL ways to slightly harass this person into giving me my money back.

Thanks in advance to the brain trust for any help you can give.

Step one, find the address and identity of the account holder. Perhaps your bank or the Zelle system has some way of doing this? If not, you can likely pay an investigator or a lawyer who uses an investigator to do a skip trace or reverse phone number look up to find an associated address. You may be able to pay for an online service to do the same.

Step two, file a small claims case against "Maria" and have her served. Allege fraud. I'm not even sure if you'd win, but the small claims lawsuit itself should force resolution.

Step three, offer her a settlement-- keep some portion of the funds for her trouble. Having her hand over the money will be far easier than trying to enforce a small claims judgment, even if you were certain you would win.

Remember, from her perspective, you look like a scammer. Literally an uncountable number of scams are attempted each day where a scammer tries to send money and then later asks for some portion of it back. You may have to get her trust first before she would even consider giving you money back.

Unless she's willing to cooperate (and relatively local), and early signs are that she won't, it's going to take more than $1300 to get your $1300 back.
Even then, she may have already spend the money and be judgement proof.
I'm guessing you sent this as a friends and family type transaction to avoid fees & recourse?

Spelled out here.
https://donotpay.com/learn/zel...s%20Payment%20option

Can you contact her bank and see if they will work with you and contact her.

She may be just trying to keep the money because she's a jerk and that type of person. She may also be worried it's some kind of scam. Someone random person calls her after depositing money into her account and now want them to send the money back money back.

I know what Zelle is but I would be hesitant that it was a scam myself. I send the money and then the original deposit is bad in some way.

I know you're not doing this but think of it from her point.

She may just be a jack ass but I would see if there was a way to get a bank involved. If someone from her bank called her maybe she would feel comfortable about this. Again this is only if she's not a jerk and trying to keep the money.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Unless she's willing to cooperate (and relatively local), and early signs are that she won't, it's going to take more than $1300 to get your $1300 back.
Even then, she may have already spend the money and be judgement proof.
I'm guessing you sent this as a friends and family type transaction to avoid fees & recourse?

Spelled out here.
https://donotpay.com/learn/zel...s%20Payment%20option

The person's area code is nowhere close to being local (Las Vegas). I agree that it will cost more than the $1300 to try and get the money back so as a last resort I'm basically just looking for someone here to have a brilliant solution.

I'm resigned to having lost the money but Zelle is not really upfront in how their system works. Knowing what I know now I wouldn't use it for anything but small purchases or sending funds to someone I really know and trust. I was using Zelle as the sellers preferred method and was not familiar with the detail of how it works.

There are very few safeguards and once the money is deposited into an account the do not pay process doesn't work. The money is pretty much gone unless the person is honest and willing to return it. By simply transposing 2 numbers of a phone number I threw away $1300.00

I do have a few days until the dispute process is completed so maybe there is some hope.

Theft by unlawful taking ... but Zelle will not help.

Personally, I like Zelle. It is owned and run by the back.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
Can you contact her bank and see if they will work with you and contact her.

She may be just trying to keep the money because she's a jerk and that type of person. She may also be worried it's some kind of scam. Someone random person calls her after depositing money into her account and now want them to send the money back money back.

I know what Zelle is but I would be hesitant that it was a scam myself. I send the money and then the original deposit is bad in some way.

I know you're not doing this but think of it from her point.

She may just be a jack ass but I would see if there was a way to get a bank involved. If someone from her bank called her maybe she would feel comfortable about this. Again this is only if she's not a jerk and trying to keep the money.

I have no way of knowing anything about her or her bank, all I have is her phone number. In the short conversation I had with her I told her I was going to dispute the transfer and also asked her to speak with her bank so that they could reassure her that this was not a scam.

My bank has all the records of the transaction and can see the transfer, the deposit, my attempt to cancel the transfer within a 10 minute window. I believe their dispute resolution process goes back to the person through their bank and the zelle process to assure them there is no scam, but the decision is still up to the individual.

Go into YOUR bank immediately. Zelle ultimately is through your bank. I did the same once but was able to unsend it 20 minutes later on my phone app. Try that, but if that doesn't work go into your bank. Banking errors occur with checks and stuff sometimes, and they're able to pull the money back.

fastpeoplesearch.com
truepeoplesearch.com

try the phone number in those.

i always send $1 to any new zelle person and wait for confirmation before sending large amounts.

i mainly only use it for contacts in my phone so i don't accidentally send money to the wrong person.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
Go into YOUR bank immediately. Zelle ultimately is through your bank. I did the same once but was able to unsend it 20 minutes later on my phone app. Try that, but if that doesn't work go into your bank. Banking errors occur with checks and stuff sometimes, and they're able to pull the money back.

I tried that, but once the funds get deposited into their account that function will not work. I attempted to cancel the transaction within 10 minutes but since this lady had a zelle account it was deposited within one minute of my sending it. Had she not had a zelle account attached to her phone number I would have been successful.

I am attempting to use the banks dispute resolution process but am being told that my chances of success are slim to none.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
fastpeoplesearch.com
truepeoplesearch.com

try the phone number in those.

i always send $1 to any new zelle person and wait for confirmation before sending large amounts.

i mainly only use it for contacts in my phone so i don't accidentally send money to the wrong person.

Thank you! I'll give it a try.

quote:

Originally posted by Marc1911:
I have reached out to my bank to dispute the transfer but am told that my chances are slim to none that they will be able to accomplish this and that my best bet is to contact the person and ask them to return the money.

I sympathize with your predicament. It's bull that your bank/Zelle won't follow up on this. This seems like a simple CC dispute. How hard would it be for the bank/Zelle to verify that Maria didn't send you anything?

I like Zelle.

When the money hits my account, there's no way for the sender to take their money back.

You put $200 cash into an envelope and then mailed it to the wrong address. Should the USPS be responsible for fixing your error? Is the actual (not the intended) recipient guilty of defrauding you?

I don’t mean to be a jerk, but it does help to understand the essential nature of the xfer.

If Maria was already set up on Zelle thru her bank, your payment was posted to her account and available within minutes. If Maria wasn’t already set up on Zelle, there would be a several-day lag for her to enroll & the funds to be credited and that lag could have been used by your bank to try to recall the transfer at your request. Presumably, Maria was already set up on Zelle but is acting ignorant & evasive re your inquiries - akin to someone claiming they didn’t find the $200 that you accidentally left on the laundromat’s table. Is Maria being an ass for pretending to not have received the xfer? Sure. But fraud?

Zelle is basically an ACH transaction that - when facilitated & backed by member banks for their enrolled customers at both ends of the transaction - somewhat approximates an inexpensive wire transfer. It is my understanding that the typical fraud protection for credit card transactions does not exist for ACH transactions and thus the banks are very explicit with their instructions as to the customer’s responsibility / risk of inputting the correct info for the intended payee. Those instructions don’t explain the nuances of how the xfer truly works but they do provide the simple warning as to correct payee info.

By mistake, Maria received money for which she was not entitled. I don’t know what recourse you have against her. But it really is against her that your efforts should be directed, if you so chose.

Sorry about all this. I’m not a banker. My above understanding is only from my own research to assess the credit / settlement risks associated with Zelle as I contemplate its continued use for similar xactions. We all struggle to select payment methods that are relatively safe and it is hard to truly understand the underlying mechanics / risks for a given method.

one of the last chances on zelle is when the zelle asks, "are you sure you want to complete this transaction", the bank isn't responsible or liable.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:

I'm guessing you sent this as a friends and family type transaction to avoid fees & recourse?

It seems to me that you are referring to PayPal transaction types and fees. Zelle does not charge fees, nor does Zelle have classifications like "friends and family."

---

I use Zelle, but I believe that there is a safer way to use it: Zelle allows the sender to identify the recipient by either cell phone number or email address.

I believe that using the cell phone number has a higher probability of user error, as in Marc1911's case, where he entered the phone number incorrectly.

Using the recipient's email address is not fool-proof, but a reduced likelihood of sending the money to the wrong place.

I was simply referring to the process.
Since I wrote that earlier (I don't have a Zelle account myself) I read the terms and conditions I linked and they clearly point out that this should only be used for people you know and trust, not to strangers. This is not a Paypal type system for commercial transactions with strangers.
The Zelle link clearly explains the inability to undo most transactions once you push the send button and clearly says that that's among the reasons why you shouldn't use this service for anyone you don't know and trust.

quote:

Originally posted by Keystoner:
This seems like a simple CC dispute.

It's not. It's a straight cash transaction without any recourse.

With all the scams going on I can't really blame the recipient. Personally I'd freak out and probably close the account etc.

I use Zelle to send money one way as in gifts or I already have the goods.

I think Maria might also think it's one of those scams you're trying to pull. Hence she blocked you.

At this point, it's all hindsight but you could have texted the number first to make sure it was the right person. Entered it in your address book instead of entering the number directly into Zelle (I actually don't know if you can enter directly into Zelle, I always pull from my contacts) before sending the money.

As others said, go through your bank and see what they can do. I really wouldn't harass the other person; as I said, they might be thinking you're pulling a fast one on them and, now, they pulled a fast one on the scammer.

At best, $1300 isn't going to send you to the poor house and it's a steep tuition payment for a lesson learned.

Marc,

I think you're stuck in the zone where any attempt to find the person and force them to repay is going to cost more than the loss, if it's even possible.