Starting March 23, Chase Bank will decline or block Zelle transactions initiated on social media.
“If you are sending a Zelle payment from your Chase account that is identified as originating from contact through social media, we may, in our discretion, delay, decline, or block that payment,” according to a revised Zelle service agreement first spotted by BleepingComputer.
The move is intended to protect customers from fraud and scams, Chase says. The Zelle service “should not be used to pay for goods from recipients with whom you are not familiar,” such as social media marketplaces or messaging apps, it adds.
Going forward, Chase may request more information from customers when they set up a payment or add a recipient through Zelle to assess whether the payment “has elevated fraud or scam risk, or is an illegal, ineligible or improper payment.” It may ask questions about the purpose of payment or how they got in touch with the recipient. If customers don’t respond truthfully, Chase may restrict their use of Zelle or take stricter actions.
Zelle is a digital payments network launched in 2017 and operated by a private firm co-owned by seven major US banks, including Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo.
The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently sued Zelle and the three banks for failing to protect consumers against fraud. Zelle was “too slow to restrict and track criminals” who exploited its payment system, according to the agency, which also accused the three banks of “running a payment system that made fraud easy and then refusing to help the victims.”
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It’s unclear where that suit stands now given that the Trump administration and the Elon Musk-DOGE has moved to dismantle the CFPB.
A 2022 New York Times investigation found that fraudsters were using Zelle to impersonate bank employees and scam customers. According to Sen. Elizabeth Warren—a CFPB champion—192,878 such cases were reported from four banks in 2021 and the first half of 2022. In November, around 2,100 banks started issuing refunds to those duped via Zelle.
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