Cash App’s Tech-Driven Approach to Combating Scams
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Technology powers our platform safety at Cash App. Financial scams and fraud are an unfortunate reality of the digital world. As a financial technology platform, Cash App leverages the latest technology to protect our customers. Across the millions of peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions that occur every day, Cash App uses a combination of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, a team of fraud and scam experts, and customer-oriented reporting tools to detect and prevent scams. Let’s take a look under the hood of Cash App’s Scam Prevention Machine.
One Step Ahead: Technological Innovation for Scam Intervention
As bad actors leverage the latest advancements in technology to orchestrate scams, Cash App’s team of financial safety experts and engineers deploy AI-powered tools to stay one step ahead. Our systems utilize advanced machine learning (ML) and deep learning to continuously monitor millions of transactions for any signs of fraudulent activity. From unusual payment patterns, or previously flagged accounts, our tech-centered approach allows Cash App to detect and stop potential scams in real time.
Payment Warnings: Empowering Users to Pause Before They Pay
Scam prevention also requires customer vigilance, and that’s why Cash App’s ML-powered Payment Warnings system is critical for user safeguarding. We know scammers often try to create a sense of urgency to pressure their victims to make transactions swiftly while under duress. How they work: When our system detects a suspected scam, Cash App will immediately send an in-app message to the customer, notifying them that the payment or account may be linked to a scam. This alert provides them with a chance to cancel their transaction before proceeding while reminding them to ensure they’re sending money to someone they know and trust. According to internal research, Payment Warnings play a major role in disrupting the behavioral and psychological dynamics at play. The warnings are meant to make customers rethink before they pay, but they don’t always mean a scam is involved. We found that 37% of the time, Cash App users cancel their payments after seeing the alerts.
Responding Immediately: Blocking and Suspending Accounts
When scam payments do occur, Cash App takes action. If our systems detect a scam with high confidence, we can block the payment and return the funds to the customer immediately. Cash App then temporarily suspends the suspected scammer’s account to prevent possible additional fraudulent activities while our team of experts investigate the case. If we identify a scammer account, we close the account to stop them from scamming others in the future.
Customer Reporting: Playing Your Part
Cash App also makes it easy for customers to report potential scams through the in-app “Scam Report” feature. As more people report scams, Cash App leverages the data to improve our automated scam detection methods. Thanks to our new enhanced reporting system, our customers can now provide Cash App with detailed information to help us verify claims faster and improve our AI system for the future.
Remediation: Helping Customers Get Their Money Back
Falling victim to a scam can be a significant financial setback for customers. That’s why Cash App rolled out a scam reimbursement policy to help customers impacted by Impostor and Deception scams. In 2024, Cash App began rolling out reimbursements, offering partial or full refunds for verified scams within 60 days. Our data shows that as of November 2024, over 20,000 customers had received reimbursements, with 90% fully compensated.
Going Beyond the App: Cracking Down on Fake Accounts
We know most financial scams begin well before they make it to our platform – in fact, our data shows that the majority of scams start on social media, while others can originate on other platforms. To fight these challenges, Cash App invests resources to combat scams at their source. In 2024, we unveiled Social Media Guardian, a tool designed for scam monitoring to identify possible fraudulent accounts on social media. In addition to our Guardian tool, Cash App also deploys third-party vendors to track and shut down fake accounts and websites that try to misuse the Cash App name. Cash App took down over 11,745 scam-related accounts, sites, and domains in 2024.
Measuring Success: Always Improving
With a confirmed scam rate of less than 0.01% of all transactions, we’re making significant progress towards combating scams on the platform, but our work is never done.
In the battle against scams, Cash App is leaning on its technological advantages that combine continuously learning AI models, real-time warnings, proactive monitoring, and customer collaboration to stay one step ahead of bad actors and ensure that digital payments are safer for everyone.
Author
Block
Tags
Technology powers our platform safety at Cash App. Financial scams and fraud are an unfortunate reality of the digital world. As a financial technology platform, Cash App leverages the latest technology to protect our customers. Across the millions of peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions that occur every day, Cash App uses a combination of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, a team of fraud and scam experts, and customer-oriented reporting tools to detect and prevent scams. Let’s take a look under the hood of Cash App’s Scam Prevention Machine.
One Step Ahead: Technological Innovation for Scam Intervention
As bad actors leverage the latest advancements in technology to orchestrate scams, Cash App’s team of financial safety experts and engineers deploy AI-powered tools to stay one step ahead. Our systems utilize advanced machine learning (ML) and deep learning to continuously monitor millions of transactions for any signs of fraudulent activity. From unusual payment patterns, or previously flagged accounts, our tech-centered approach allows Cash App to detect and stop potential scams in real time.
Payment Warnings: Empowering Users to Pause Before They Pay
Scam prevention also requires customer vigilance, and that’s why Cash App’s ML-powered Payment Warnings system is critical for user safeguarding. We know scammers often try to create a sense of urgency to pressure their victims to make transactions swiftly while under duress. How they work: When our system detects a suspected scam, Cash App will immediately send an in-app message to the customer, notifying them that the payment or account may be linked to a scam. This alert provides them with a chance to cancel their transaction before proceeding while reminding them to ensure they’re sending money to someone they know and trust. According to internal research, Payment Warnings play a major role in disrupting the behavioral and psychological dynamics at play. The warnings are meant to make customers rethink before they pay, but they don’t always mean a scam is involved. We found that 37% of the time, Cash App users cancel their payments after seeing the alerts.
Responding Immediately: Blocking and Suspending Accounts
When scam payments do occur, Cash App takes action. If our systems detect a scam with high confidence, we can block the payment and return the funds to the customer immediately. Cash App then temporarily suspends the suspected scammer’s account to prevent possible additional fraudulent activities while our team of experts investigate the case. If we identify a scammer account, we close the account to stop them from scamming others in the future.
Customer Reporting: Playing Your Part
Cash App also makes it easy for customers to report potential scams through the in-app “Scam Report” feature. As more people report scams, Cash App leverages the data to improve our automated scam detection methods. Thanks to our new enhanced reporting system, our customers can now provide Cash App with detailed information to help us verify claims faster and improve our AI system for the future.
Remediation: Helping Customers Get Their Money Back
Falling victim to a scam can be a significant financial setback for customers. That’s why Cash App rolled out a scam reimbursement policy to help customers impacted by Impostor and Deception scams. In 2024, Cash App began rolling out reimbursements, offering partial or full refunds for verified scams within 60 days. Our data shows that as of November 2024, over 20,000 customers had received reimbursements, with 90% fully compensated.
Going Beyond the App: Cracking Down on Fake Accounts
We know most financial scams begin well before they make it to our platform – in fact, our data shows that the majority of scams start on social media, while others can originate on other platforms. To fight these challenges, Cash App invests resources to combat scams at their source. In 2024, we unveiled Social Media Guardian, a tool designed for scam monitoring to identify possible fraudulent accounts on social media. In addition to our Guardian tool, Cash App also deploys third-party vendors to track and shut down fake accounts and websites that try to misuse the Cash App name. Cash App took down over 11,745 scam-related accounts, sites, and domains in 2024.
Measuring Success: Always Improving
With a confirmed scam rate of less than 0.01% of all transactions, we’re making significant progress towards combating scams on the platform, but our work is never done.
In the battle against scams, Cash App is leaning on its technological advantages that combine continuously learning AI models, real-time warnings, proactive monitoring, and customer collaboration to stay one step ahead of bad actors and ensure that digital payments are safer for everyone.