MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. – A Muskegon County woman is out more than a thousand dollars after she said someone took advantage of her.
What she thought would be a simple trip to get a new phone left her Cash App account with a near $0 balance.
“I was so upset, I cried.”
Brought to tears over a simple phone upgrade that wound up costing the Muskegon Heights woman a great deal more than she bargained for.
Linda—who asked that we only use her first name – said she did some grocery shopping while she waited near the store in Roosevelt Park—which won’t be identified, pending a police investigation–prior to leaving with her brand-new phone.
“I come home plug in the phone, didn’t make anything about it,” she related.
Yet, Linda was in for a nasty surprise the very next day when she checked her balance.
“Somehow, what I had in my Cash App account, which was $1,818, he took it all and left me $.51,” she explained, referencing the store clerk she believed had taken the money.
The trip had cost Linda her savings. Money she said she intended to use to support her sick mother, who she explained was on dialysis.
And as an ever-greater number of users embrace the convenience of banking apps, the tactic has become fairly commonplace, according to the Better Business Bureau.
“They’re super convenient, but they do come with a lot of risks,” the Better Business Bureau’s Katie Grevious noted. “Most of them do not protect you, as a user.”
“There’s always going to be a risk.”
Recommending those who choose to use banking apps like Cash App, Venmo, PayPal and others take precautions.
Linking accounts to a credit card instead of a bank account, Grevious said, affords users the ability to dispute fraudulent charges.
“Just being aware in the first place, that there are risks, and knowing those risks, can help you make smarter purchases and who you’re doing transactions with,” she explained.
“You never think this will happen to you,” Linda related. “Old as I am… you just don’t think this will happen to you.”
She said the company told her the withdrawal looked legitimate, yet records show it had come from an iPhone. Linda doesn’t own one.
So, after pressing Cash App and the store for a refund, she filed a police report.
Roosevelt Park Police confirmed they were investigating the incident at the time of publication.
Detectives did flag a potential person of interest in the theft, but haven’t been able to make contact.
Cash App, the department said, wasn’t cooperating with the probe.
“I’ll never get my money back, but he needs to go to jail, if anything,” Linda related. The store, she said, had told her the employee involved had been terminated following an interaction with management.
She no longer uses the app and wants her loss to allow others to better understand the potential risks.
“I am afraid that this is going to happen to somebody else,” Linda related. “Be very careful.”
13 ON YOUR SIDE attempted to contact Cash App for comment but had yet to receive a reply by deadline Friday.
The station also contacted the store’s district manager and was told it would be put in touch with a spokesperson. No communication had been received at the time of publication.
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