KSL INVESTIGATES
Get Gephardt: Kearns woman recovers thousands drained from money app
Jan 12, 2023, 5:06 PM
KEARNS, Utah — Money transfer apps are attractive for a lot of reasons: it’s relatively easy to send money to friends and to pay bills, the fees are fewer than traditional outlets for sending money, and the apps are available everywhere.
A Kearns woman thought she had protection with the money transfer app she uses for banking – that is until fraudsters drained her account.
“Forty-six transactions, and all the transactions are all just one merchant,” Brittany Peck said of the fraudulent transactions on her Cash App account – all from a New York City Target. “It was all in like 20 minutes. I was at a concert.”
A concert here in Salt Lake, not in New York City. Amongst the transactions was one that showed Peck had used her Cash App account to buy refreshments in Salt Lake. But back in New York, fraudsters stole thousands from her within those 20 minutes.
“I had $10,000 in my account and they drained it,” Peck said.
She acted quickly to dispute the charges, and she said she was hopeful Cash App would help her recover the money, since they also noticed the possible fraud.
“They stopped it for suspicious activity that was on the last few transactions,” she explained.
So, she was mystified when three days later, Cash App came back and said, nope, the charges were valid. Peck tried to escalate her dispute.
“I get placed on hold. I get the run around. Nobody will connect you to the fraud department,” she said. “Nothing.”
Hopeful in turning that nothing into something, Peck decided it was time to Get Gephardt.
We reached out to Cash App’s corporate office. They refused to talk about her case, citing privacy issues. But just like that, she got word from Cash App that they had a change of heart, and most of the bogus charges were refunded.
Peck’s relief was tempered by the frustration of having to involve a TV station to get this resolved.
“They were no help to me,” she said.
We asked Cash App general questions about their fraud investigations and how the charges were initially determined to be legit. Their response directed us to their blog about how to keep your account safe.
