Woman warns of 'fake customer service' scam targeting popular money transfer app

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County woman has a warning for others after she said a fake customer service representative scammed her out of hundreds of dollars.

Kristen Williams said she was trying to fix an incorrect money transfer on the popular mobile payment app, Cash App.

She had sent money for lunch to the wrong person and wanted to get the transfer fixed.

When she couldn’t find a phone number on the app, Williams said she Googled it.

"When I called there, the guy is, like, 'I'm Kevin with Cash App customer service. How can I assist you?'" Williams said.

She said the entire thing looked and sounded legitimate, so she wasn't worried when the so-called customer service rep asked her for private account information.

Ultimately, the person on the other line drained both her and her boyfriend's accounts of more than $1,500.

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“I said, ‘Sir, the money I had in my account that was sitting in my Cash App account, it’s gone,’ and then he hung up the phone,” Williams said. "You can say I should have known better, but when I Googled the number, it wasn't lost in different addresses. It sits right at the top" of the search.

Not only is the number disconnected, it was removed from the search results.

Channel 2 Action News called the number that now pops up in the search. It's the official Cash App number.

“Please be aware that Cash App employees are often impersonated by scammers circulating fake phone numbers online,” an official Cash App recording said when we called.

The company confirmed Williams was likely the victim of an online phishing scam.

Just one day after Channel 2 Action News started asking questions, Williams was reimbursed.

“Find different ways to double check the numbers, make sure that it belongs to the company,” Williams said.

Cash App confirms that it generally only communicates via official email -- and that the Cash App team will never ask people for their pin or sign-in code outside of the app.

Cash App sent Channel 2 Action News the following statement:

We are always working to protect our customers, which includes educating them about phishing scams. We remind customers that currently (1) the Cash App team generally communicates via email; (2) the email will come from a cash.app, square.com, or squareup.com address; and (3) the Cash App team will never solicit a customer’s PIN or sign in code outside of the app. For more information, we encourage customers to visit here.

Cox Media Group