Post from Community: BBB Scam Alert: This get-rich-quick con promises fast money on Cash App | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Wisconsin Better Business Bureau
November 15, 2020
Editor’s note: Posts from the Community is the place for community announcements and event postings. If you have a community-oriented event you feel our readers would be interested in, please submit here.
Want to turn $500 into $10,000 with very little effort?  Of course, you do! Scammers are taking advantage of people’s get-rich-quick dreams by promoting “money flipping” scams on social media, and BBB is seeing dozens of reports each month about these cons.
How the Scam Works:
Do you have feedback on Milwaukee NNS's reporting? Take our survey to let us know how we're doing!
You see a photo of a pile cash on social media. In the caption, the user brags about having “flipped” a couple hundred dollars into thousands. Want to do it, too? It’s easy. Just message the account holder. The “investor” will ask you to send money – typically $300 to $800 –  through Cash App or another digital wallet service. Then, they “invest” your money in the stock market where it multiples in a few days.
Sounds great, right? Here’s the catch. When you try to get your money back, the scammer claims that Cash App charges a fee to return it. In other cases, the con artist alleges that you first need to pay taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Some victims report sending thousands of dollars in phony fees. Every dollar you pay for money flipping – from the initial “investment” to the alleged taxes – is going straight into the scammer’s pocket. You won’t see any of your money again.
Cash App and its parent company Square are aware that scammers are using its platform in this way and they have communicated with customers who have been impacted by certain scams. They recommend that any customer in need of additional assistance contact their support team cash.app/help.
Tips to Avoid Money Flipping Scams:
For More Information
Many investment scams use similar techniques, see BBB.org/InvestmentScam. Learn more about Cash App scams and staying safe when using a digital wallet like Cash App and Zelle.
If you’ve been targeted by this scam, help others avoid the same problem by reporting your experience on the BBB Scam Tracker.
For more information or further inquiries, contact the Wisconsin BBB at www.bbb.org/wisconsin, 414-847-6000 or 1-800-273-1002. Consumers also can find more information about how to protect themselves from scams by following the Wisconsin BBB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.