According to the latest figures from mobile intelligence provider Apptopia, reports of fraud on the mobile payment service Cash App have increased by more than 300% since this time last year

Several Cash App users told Yahoo Finance that their Cash App accounts were hacked and they lost thousands of dollars Several Cash App users told Yahoo Finance that their Cash App accounts were hacked and they lost thousands of dollars

"It's like an abusive relationship where you try to contact someone and they completely ignore you," said one Cash App user, a young mother in Utah who said that nearly $3,000 was withdrawn from her account overnight

As a result of the loss of funds, she said she had to sell a car seat for her pregnant baby to support the child she already has

A California businessman told Yahoo Finance that scammers created fake refunds involving his Cash App account, moved money from his regular bank account, and then stole $21,000 He stole $21,000 from his Cash App account to purchase bitcoins

COVID-19's shift to remote work spurred him to download the Cash App As apps link to bank accounts and payment cards, customer reviews claiming fraud and scams have increased, and there have been a number of reports of scammers taking advantage of the growing reliance on such apps

For those unfamiliar with the service, cash apps are one of the miscellaneous members of peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment services such as Zelle and Venmo

These have become popular digital payment solutions because they facilitate routine payments between friends and family and allow customers to stay on top of their banking However, these services have also become a hotbed for crooks trying to swindle you out of your hard-earned cash

A Bay Area college student told Yahoo Finance that he still cannot get on the phone with a Cash App support representative, even though he lost $1,850 to scammers who bypassed the two-factor authentication (2FA) and transaction PINs he had enabled on his account

Cash App told Yahoo Finance that when he called the customer support number (1 (855) 351-2274), he was recorded to contact customer service through the app

"Live phone support is typically not available at this time," a recorded message said when Tom's Guide called this number at 3 pm Eastern time on Monday

The young mother told Yahoo Finance that if she tried to get help through the app, all she could do was leave a message and hope she would get a call from the cash app's customer service

Scammers noticed this lack of customer support and rushed to take advantage of it, said WRIC-TV in Richmond, Virginia They engage in what they call "search addiction," whereby the customer service number for a fake cash app rises to the top of Google's search results

One of the Cash App users Yahoo Finance spoke with said that after noticing $300 missing from his account, he called what he thought was the Cash App's customer help line However, the fake service representative on the other end of the phone stole another $1,600

In other cases, such as the one cited by WTVD-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, scammers call Cash App users directly, posing as Cash App customer service They offer to help users move money around, but in the end they just take the money

Unfortunately for Cash App, which accounts for nearly half of parent company Square's profits, customers can receive paychecks, tax refunds, and other account transfers directly through this service Cash App also issues physical debit cards, allowing users to invest in stocks and buy and sell bitcoin directly from the app

For customers who take advantage of these features, Cash App essentially functions as a bank, but is much less regulated There is no Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) equivalent that underwrites bank accounts and ensures that Cash App account holders do not lose all their money

All of this means that cash apps are open to the widest range of attack vectors of any mobile payment app

According to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Bureau has "received 1,559 complaints about Square, all of which were filed about cash apps The majority of these were related to money transfer, virtual currency, or money services issues

This is more than any other peer-to-peer service, and is highlighted by customers' repeated and persistent unsuccessful efforts to speak with a Cash App person after a scam took place

The company admits that there is no live phone support, but that probably does little to appease customers who have lost tens of thousands of dollars

The app is best known for its #CashAppFriday promotion, which offers a giveaway for the first intake of users who retweet or reply to a Cash App social post

After Yahoo Finance contacted Cash App about what the users Cash App spoke with had experienced, the company contacted Bay Area students and California businessmen and offered to help them recover some of their lost funds

A young mother in Utah stated that Cash App had repaid all of her lost money However, the man who lost $1,600 to fake customer service has not gotten his money back and believes that both the Cash App and the bank he regularly uses have solved the problem

The best advice at this stage may be to stop using the Cash App until it addresses the fraud issue If he still needs to use the cash app, he should keep his account balance low so that he doesn't have much to steal