Scammers Use Venmo To 'Deceive and Defraud Customers' On Flights

An anonymous reader quotes a report from SFGATE: The same morning that JetBlue Airways announced that it was the first airline partnering with Venmo to begin accepting payments for booking flights, an account on the popular payment platform was already raking in money. A Venmo user named Owen Miller paid the JetBlue Checkpoint Store for a drink on Wednesday morning, which is a typical transaction between a traveler and airline, except for the fact that JetBlue doesn't operate that account. "At this time, JetBlue does not accept Venmo payment for inflight purchases such as food and beverages," a representative for the airline told SFGATE in an email. "Unfortunately, we have seen accounts falsely representing themselves as JetBlue to deceive and defraud customers." To stay safe from scammers when booking JetBlue flights with Venmo, the airline recommends customers only use verified JetBlue channels, such as their official website or app, and follow their secure payment process using the provided QR code. JetBlue said it plans to fold Venmo payments into its mobile app later this year.

Pay with a credit card

[Ed Tice]

Everybody outside of JetBlue (and I guess Venmo which seems to be complicit in fraud) would suggest that you buy your airline tickets with a credit card. If your finances are in such shambles that you don't have a credit card, instead of taking that trip, save the money for an emergency.

Re:

[Firethorn]

What if the trip is the emergency?
Like going to a parent's funeral?

Re:

[thegarbz]

If your finances are in such shambles that you don't have a credit card

Why do finances need to be in shambles to not have a credit card? What a strange Americanism you have there.

Re:

[Ed Tice]

JetBlue is an American airline that flies mostly domestically. Venmo is a crappy payment only available in the US. There's really no point of talking about paying with your Mir card or whatever since that's not an available option. If you're here in the US, yes, you pay by credit card. The merchant is stuck with a fee that they hate. But as a consumer you get a very high level or protection.

Let's say, for example, you buy a bicycle with your credit card and the next day it falls off of your bicycle

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[toxonix]

I agree, and would have vehemently disagreed because I had a loathing for the credit card industry, but used responsibly a credit card should provide the benefits you're paying for. A lot of businesses around here are cash only because they don't want the overhead. But personally having either a virtual card or a credit card can protect you from theft, scams, bad actors in general. Responsible use of a credit card provides a protective buffer to your actual money. Just don't pay any interest if you're alrea

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[AvitarX]

Tl:Dr; in the US visa is the primary account to account processor, our bank cards work as visa. You can pay with visa unless you don't have a bank account which is generally a sign of finances in shambles.

Because our government has dragged its feet to have a fast messaging system for account to account transfers.

The banks have refused to cooperate on such a system.

So we end up with visa processing those transactions on their network even when it's a debit card.

Anybody who has a bank account here has a credi

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[mjwx]

Everybody outside of JetBlue (and I guess Venmo which seems to be complicit in fraud) would suggest that you buy your airline tickets with a credit card. If your finances are in such shambles that you don't have a credit card, instead of taking that trip, save the money for an emergency.

Not even a credit card, even just a debit card will do the job... Always buy your ticket direct from the airline though. When things go wrong (and they do go askew a lot, especially since the pandemic) you don't want to have to deal with agents that couldn't care less... dealing with the airline that are legally required to do something that may be similar to, but not entirely like caring, will be difficult enough.

The problem is, and this will come to a shock to many Europeans, Australians, Japanese and

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[Ed Tice]

I'm not saying there aren't cases where somebody is unbanked and needs to fly. However, the vast majority of situations where an unbanked person "needs to fly," they don't need to fly.

Secure?

[usedtobestine]

How does one go about creating a "secure" QR code?

Re: Secure?

[reanjr]

By using it to link to a payment portal. Of you trust the originator of the QR code (e.g., the JetBlue website or an agent of JetBlue), then then QR code just takes you to a TLS site where you make payment.

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[pjt33]

TFS doesn't call the QR code "secure": merely "provided".

I support this

[thegarbz]

Honestly if someone is stupid enough to attempt to buy food in the flight and rather than tapping their credit card, or their phone, or their watch or doing anything *normal* to pay, and instead using Venmo they honestly should have a scammer looking after their money instead.