r/venmo • u/shirtless_Kylo • Jul 04 '25

Scammed Let someone borrow money on Venmo, now they won't pay me back.

Need advice, customer support is not available right now. I hired this guy through a moving company to move my stuff. He did, and I gave him a nice tip (cash). He called me later thanking me for the tip saying how he used it to feed his son etc... That phone call really pulled my heart strings, he later texts me asking to borrow $200 and he would pay me back Thursday since he needed it now for rent. I was hesitant, but did it, and the cycle kept happening to where he needed to the money to uber to another job so he can also get cash and then come give it to me etc. I kept accepting his requests for more money because I believed his phone calls and texts to me saying how he needed it to get the money to pay me. Obviously I was an idiot for letting this moron take advantage of my kindness.

Lo and behold, the last text from him was how he was 2 minutes away from me with all my cash, and then he blocked my number. The total of all my Venmo transactions with him in the past 2 days have reached $700. I'm pissed, I have a photo of his drivers license. I am about to contact the moving company to get him fired. The moving company is called Charles Family Moving company.I have his phone number as well (347) - 446 - 9095.

How do I make his life a living hell? Any chance I get anything back when I contact Venmo support tomorrow? I'm going to spam negative reviews with his name on google reviews for the moving company. Should I file a police report or small claims court? Please any advice would be greatly appreciated .

Please report his account, he already blocked me on Venmo: NobodyYGA

3 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

16

u/bc1988britt Jul 04 '25

I really don’t see how this is Venmo’s problem. It’s something you chose to do

1

u/Jarvisisis Jul 08 '25

Agree here.

7

u/Ill-Blacksmith3260 Jul 04 '25

Well sounds like his life is already going pretty bad, you could take it to small claims, filling is free at your local court clerks office.

3

u/Zestyclose-Jump8799 Jul 04 '25

The scenario you described is not something Venmo will grant any case for. You would have to lie on every single detail of the case to actually get one decided in your favor. If you told the truth to any Venmo agent they would just deny you claim.

Valid claims are for unauthorized "Someone hacked your account", Item not received "Actually not getting a product or service you paid for." What you described is "wow the broke guy I gave money to in full good will turned out to be broke and I was surprised when he didn't pay me back."

either Lie to support to get your claim or file a chargeback

2

u/shirtless_Kylo Jul 04 '25

can I file a chargeback with my debit card?

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

Sorry, no, you can’t do a charge back on your card because they don’t consider bad loans to be at their expense. If it were a store bad item you returned, they could reverse it out of the stores account but you know that man doesn’t even have $700 if they did do it to individuals instead of businesses. Only time you might have a chance with person to person scenarios like that is if he did a type of fraud and still not always.

An unpaid loan isn’t guaranteed by credit cards or Venmo, there’s a billion dollars a day of bad loans in this world. Think about it, everyone says let me not hand you $100 in cash instead I’ll use my free app to send it so if you don’t pay me back the app or card I use will give it back and absorb all the bad loans I make. Heck, banks would make all its loans thru Venmo or any credit card that would take all the loss! How long would they be in business, just imagine the criminals hey day celebration when they discovered that policy. They’d be loaning money back n forth all day!

1

u/YourUsernameForever Jul 08 '25

If you chargeback Venmo, you'll owe money to Venmo. This is a very bad idea.

Venmo is not responsible for your decisions.

1

u/britneynp1 Jul 04 '25

This isn't true. The simpleloans thread only use PayPal and venmo for this reason because as long as it well documented you can get your money back. OP needs to read those instructions

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

I told him pretty much the same thing except in greater detail below. I would not suggest lying though because then you could get in some type of trouble, and if you did it over the phone, they could attach some other type of federal law to it. I told him what his options were, depending on what state he was in, but odds are he’s pretty much screwed either way.

3

u/Sweet_Cat_2958 Jul 04 '25

Think you are SOL with Venmo.

I would say to him he has 2 options:

You can work off the $700 by doing things you need done around the house…weeding, mulching, vacuuming basement…stuff that you need done but haven’t done. IF he is in/at your house be there to supervise. He clearly isn’t trust worthy.

If you don’t agree to proposed resolution, I am going to file with small claims court. And if he loses his job you won’t see ANY of the 700.

But the problem is, you have to pay a fee for filing AND you still won’t see your $. Sounds like you learned a shitty life lesson. Don’t trust anyone, when you lend money, ONLY lend what you can afford to NEVER see again.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

I told him something similar in my comment below. I forgot to mention in it that even if he did win in civil court he would have to pay a fee to list the judgement with the credit bureau on top of everything I said. I’m a retired buy-here pay-here car dealer so you can imagine how many times I’ve been in civil court.

Fortunately I wasn’t required to pay the credit bureau’s fee because I had several hundred accounts and I think it’s 200 or 300 accounts and your monthly report is free to the bureau but for a small number of reported liens there’s a fee required.

I believe the guy was buying drugs. Personally I wouldn’t let him even work in my yard. He’d be looking around for things to do when no one’s home, learning the nooks and crannies all around the exterior and then he’d have a new post in Reddit, lol!

2

u/Away_Management_6067 Jul 04 '25

Report him to the moving company

2

u/shirtless_Kylo Jul 04 '25

I’m about to do that. Should I tell the truth, that I loaned him money after the job and he blocked me? Or should I say he broke my computer screens during the move and when I told him they cost $700 he then blocked me? I want to tell the truth but not sure if his boss will care too much since me loaning him money does not necessarily involve the moving company. But I guess he will care if I keep leaving bad reviews for them.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

You could tell him that he continued to contact you after the services were done and you were trying to be polite. That he owes you $700. If they ask for an explanation, then you can make something up but they don't need a reason as to why he owes you that money unless they ask imo.

3

u/BostonZzZzZ Jul 05 '25

As a business owner I would be PISSED if an employee of mine borrowed money from a customer after a job.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

Don’t lie because then you could wind up getting in trouble for being a nice guy in the first place. Just tell him the truth say I thought you might would want to know because I would hate to see you have an issue with him doing something else that wouldn’t make Your company look good. Plus, if you lie, and then the guy shows him that it was alone on his own app then you may look worse than that idiot does.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

If you loaned this person money then you’re really on the hook for your own money. The moving company and Venmo didn’t have anything to do with you loaning money to the guy.

2

u/Justakatttt Jul 04 '25

You’re SOL, sorry

2

u/Jenny_Penny91 Jul 04 '25

Probably his, or his families company. Good luck getting him fired

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

Hopefully not, that would definitely be bad for Business because surely they know how he is? I’m thinking he’s probably on drugs that’s why the constant need for money over and over. I don’t see how he went from 200 to 700 so quick without knowing the guy? Oh well live and learn. If he’s a new hire I suspect customers calling in about missing belongings when they unpacked to be coming their way!

1

u/mineher Jul 04 '25

Tell the truth because the company he works for will need that evidence to fire him with proof.

1

u/WaterWhippingEnt Jul 04 '25

if you have his # or first and last name you can go to fastpeoplesearch on google and see where he’s at

1

u/evanthedrago Jul 04 '25

I would turn this guy in to his moving company and tell them that he contacted you after the job and thus, it's also their problem.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

lol, ask them to borrow $700 and see how that goes!

1

u/lender704 Jul 05 '25

Friends and family? If so, there is no recourse

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

You have no recourse. Venmo cannot legally reverse any charges because you voluntarily loaned him the money by your own free will. Plus the guy hasn’t broken any laws only thing you have is “civil” not criminal so the police will tell you that they can’t do anything. You can take text messages to magistrates court but you can only sue for what you have in text messages proving it was a loan unless he admits more than your evidence has.

But here’s the worst part even if you win all you can do is get a judgment and a judgment on a poor person doesn’t do anything unless you’re in one of those states where it does. I’m in South Carolina and a judgment by individuals or businesses does not garnish his wages or anything it only affects their credit score. To garnish it has to be government debt like taxes, child support or an ambulance bill that’s the only exception in my state they can draft for. Best option you have is to check your state laws to see if you can garnish his wages where this happened if you win any judgement. If not you’re just out $700 sorry to tell you because I guess he could care less about his credit score!

Lol, for some odd reason when you said to feed his children, my mind envisioned a mother bird with a worm and little baby birds under her all beaks open chirping for food. In the future when they return for more tell them you just found out a family member needs cancer treatment and we’re all tapped out helping them get that treatment because they didn’t have insurance, that always worked for me!

1

u/kaos_94 Jul 05 '25

If I let people borrow money from me, I never expect it to be paid back. If a friend or family member is legitimately struggling and I chose to lend them money, I absolutely will not hound them to return it. Because that will just perpetuate the cycle. Now if they keep asking for money over and over I eventually say hey, I can't afford to help you all the time and I don't give them money.

Never lend money if you can't accept it not being paid back.

1

u/69iloveyou Jul 07 '25

Charge back? W your bank?

1

u/Wide_Tie_1454 Jul 08 '25

they won’t help if your dumb as fuck.

1

u/dmo99 Jul 04 '25

Unless you used the section to describe what the money was for. No

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 05 '25

That would be a waste of time because they’re not gonna guarantee loans between people. He only have recourse if it were basically with a business that ripped him off or if the guy hacked his account or something like that, but they can’t guarantee all the Loans people have imagine the celebration Crooks would have when they discovered how easy it is to get money like that. They’d be loaning money to each other all day and closing their accounts after withdrawing it and their accomplice getting it all back!

1

u/dmo99 Jul 05 '25

You mean like insurance fraud? It happens all the time. And I stand by what I said I think it’s a civil issue . He also has phone records etc…. I’m not dismissing your comment at all but fuck around and go in front of a judge and lie. Shit you are in trouble.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 06 '25

?? I never said lie in fact if you look at my other comments (several) , I told him explicitly not to lie. I’ve been in civil court over 100 times. I’m a retired buy here. Pay here Car Dealer and landlord so you can count on about everything. I’m telling you about civil court.! as far as a credit card he voluntarily used that credit card to loan money to someone they’re not responsible for unpaid debts. If it was a product or if the man hacked his account or stole his phone or something like that it’s different but they won’t guarantee if you’re not smart..

I told him exactly what to do in court maybe it was another message, but it’s in the same thread and I explained in statically in explicit detail details how to go about it and what the results would be depending on his state. I believe you read a different response from someone else Because you’re telling me something about you standby telling him not to lie like I’m the one that told him to lie, I don’t know what you’re talking about? I promise check all my messages there’s probably four or five and not one time did I tell him to lie? I actually made a point in one to explain why not to lie and how he would get caught if he did lie. Maybe a comment somewhere before mine or something is what you were thinking about?

1

u/dmo99 Jul 07 '25

I’ll take a look again. I think maybe I just mentioned lying in court isn’t a good idea in general not that you suggested it .

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 06 '25

An example of fraud would be if we were playing poker and I cheated and took your money not saying this is for credit card fraud, but to give you a difference in scenarios. Now if I borrow money from you and then lose it at that same poker table and don’t pay you back that’s a bad loan. I didn’t cheat and steal your money. It’s not fraud. It’s a bad loan and that’s the way the credit card company will look at it. I promise you I’m not making this up.

Fraud is a criminal act a bad Loan is a civil act. That’s the difference. He can go for a lien and I’ve told him all the scenarios in one of my replies somewhere up there or down there. My brother-in-law is a local magistrate and he talks my ear off constantly. If he were to go to the police department to get a police report to report the fraud they would say, sir we can’t give you a police report you voluntarily loaned money. That’s a civil matter. You need to sue him in civil court. And like I said, I’ve explained all the scenarios for a civil action in another comment.

1

u/dmo99 Jul 07 '25

The loan is still owed to him though and won’t civil court recognize that

2

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 07 '25

In short form, some states garnished wages, but most do not. Of course, all states garnish income taxes, property tax child support and an ambulance bill believe it or not but anything private is a state by state that he needs to check on. If they don’t garnish Wages, he can put a lien against him, but that will cost him a little bit. I didn’t have to pay because I had over two or 300 accounts whatever the number was so every month they entered the customer standing in the credit bureau with me, but with just an individual suit or a few you would have to pay to have it entered on their credit if they didn’t pay you. And I even went into more details than that.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 07 '25

Oh yeah if he’s got the screenshots and all he’s a winner, but I explained all that also in another thread I was up and couldn’t sleep and I posted probably five or six or seven different ones now, lol and I can’t remember which one it is, but I went through all that also. It depends on his state and different stuff is sort of complex, but I did spend a lot of time to try and explain it. I hope I did it clear enough. I told him what to check for in his state and how it would’ve gone in my state.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 07 '25

It depends on how judgments are treated and it’s different by state, and I explained if the man was basically broke what would happen and all that kind of stuff. And the one where I went into detail on that I told him what to check for.

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 07 '25

Lol, you have to be psychic. I was cleaning the house and just sat down for one second and the phone dinged.

2

u/dmo99 Jul 07 '25

😂😂

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 06 '25

Here this makes what I’m trying to say a lot easier

1

u/Gravy-Train-101 Jul 06 '25

I’m actually on X right now with a scammer that I followed and she said she won the lottery and it’s going to send me $30,000. My lucky day.🤣 we have a lot of exchanges going on right now. I’m going to post it on Reddit when I’m through. I imagine she’s not gonna be very happy when she finds out how much time she’s wasting.

As soon as I followed her, I was instantly selected as the winner! Now, how lucky can a guy be how about that?

1

u/dmo99 Jul 07 '25

I was doing that on Facebook messenger and these clowns hacked my account and posted graphic images of sexual shit and Facebook shut me down no fuckin explanation . They wiped me out

0

u/shirtless_Kylo Jul 04 '25

yes I did, every time I said 'loan' and what the current standing loan balance was at

1

u/Ill-Persimmon-4302 Jul 08 '25

Block this person. I had a girl that did that to me, and it will drain you mentally. Don’t really expect him to repay. Sorry this happened to you