Don’t Fall for it: Random Person Sent You Money on Cash App

Written By Branson Knowles

Getting funds randomly on Cash App may seem like a good thing, but it almost always isn’t. Cash App was made to ensure that you could find the right person before you send them money, so isn’t a random person sending you money a little suspicious?

If a random person sends you money on Cash App, don’t use it. First, review the payment to make sure it isn’t someone you know. Second, contact Cash App customer service and see if they can reverse the transaction for you. 

I don’t want to be a pessimist and say that everyone sending you money is a scammer, some people really do just make a mistake, but Cash App has gone out of its way to make it extra difficult to transact with someone you don’t know. 

You can always contact the sender and ask them to cancel the transaction. This might be the best option if you caught the transaction just after they sent it, as Cash App transfers are final after they complete their pending status. 

While this scam isn’t as common as it used to be, wrongdoers have a couple of ways of going about it.

They can hack into someone’s Cash App account, send you money from the hacked person’s account, and ask for a refund while depositing the refunded money into their own bank accounts.

While you may not be losing any of your own money, you could be helping a criminal steal from someone else. Not good. 

If a Random Person Sends You Money on Cash App, Review the Transaction

As I mentioned earlier in the article, Cash App makes it very hard to accidentally send money to the wrong user. Everyone has a unique $cashtag tied to their accounts, and most people have their real name in their bio along with a profile picture.

I don’t use Cash App very often, but my account couldn’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. I’ll include a picture below.

my cash app profile

In my profile, I have my full name, unique $cashtag, and a profile picture as well. I’m pretty confident that with all of that information, someone couldn’t send me money by accident.

If someone does claim to have sent you funds by accident, review the transaction. When someone sends you funds on Cash App, you can click on the transaction in your transaction history to get a better look at the full picture. 

I sent my girlfriend some money to see what it would look like from the receiver’s perspective. 

cash app receiver perspective

By clicking on the transaction, you’re able to get a further look into the sender’s profile. You can see if they’ve ever sent money to you before or if they’ve sent money to someone you know. This goes for receiving as well. 

If you are certain you don’t know who the sender is, don’t refund the transaction. Next, you need to get in touch with Cash App customer support and have them review and hopefully refund the transaction themselves.

If a Random Person Sends You Money on Cash App, Contact Customer Support

Cash App makes it easy to get in touch with their customer support team. From your app, you can even start a chat conversation with them, just like a text message thread. You can even close the app and wait for their response through notifications. 

If a random person has sent you money on Cash App, and you’ve reviewed the transaction and can confirm it wasn’t sent by anyone you know, reach out to customer service. Let them know what’s going on and that you want to refund the funds.

It’s important that they conduct an investigation into the matters before you do anything. If this is a scam, and you send the money back yourself, they may think that you were complicit in the transaction and think you’re a scammer as well. They may even close your account for doing so.

Terrorist funding and money laundering are two threats Cash App takes very seriously. Even if you had no idea of what’s going on, you could be helping wrongdoers further their malicious business. Don’t take matters into your own hands, let Cash App handle it. 

This is a big reason why I try not to use Venmo anymore. Last July, I had someone send me $80 on Venmo and claim it was an accident. I reached out to Venmo after I had confirmed that I had no idea who the sender was and asked them to refund her.

Venmo refused. They said once a payment is sent out online, the receiver could refund the transaction. I thought that this was ridiculous, considering I wanted nothing to do with this random stranger sending me funds.

Luckily, Cash App operates differently and is much more willing to work with you if a random person sends you money on their platform.

If a Random Person Sends You Money on Cash App, Consider Blocking Them

Scammers suck. You don’t want them messaging you on Cash App trying to convince you to send the money back. 

If they are messaging you a lot, trying to get you to send them the money back, you may need to block them from interacting with you.

Blocking someone on Cash App is easy. For this article, I sent my girlfriend some money to simulate what it would be like to block a stranger on Cash App (don’t worry, I let her keep it for all of her help!). 

  1. Find the transaction: Go to your transaction history and find the transaction in question. It should be close to the top if you caught it before it has been in your account for too long.

  1. Click on the transaction: Clicking on the transaction will expand it within your Cash App app. It will show the sender’s $cashtag, full name, and profile picture if they have one. It will also include a memo, if the sender chose to add one. This makes it easy to see if the person sending you the funds really is a random stranger.

  1. Click the three dots in the upper right hand corner: Clicking on the three dots in the upper right hand corner will bring up a menu with more options, including blocking whoever sent you money.

blocking cash app transaction

  1. Click Block: Clicking block will bring up one more screen asking if you really want to block this user. 

Cash App will let you know that blocking other users means canceling all pending transactions with them as well as taking away their ability to send or receive money to and from you. 

confirm block person on cash app

How to Refund Someone on Cash App

Before I go into detail about how to refund someone on Cash App, I want to reiterate that you should never refund someone you don’t know. Cash App even makes a point of this in one of their articles, reinforcing the point that you shouldn’t send money back to people you don’t know. 

If you are certain you know the person you sent you funds, say they’re a friend who just made a simple mistake and sent you the wrong amount of money, it’s easy to refund them.

  1. Find the transaction: Like our step earlier, start by finding the transaction in question in your transaction history and clicking on it. 

  1. Click the three dots in the upper right hand corner: The three dots aren’t only for blocking people. Click on the three dots in the upper right hand corner to move forward.

  1. Click refund: Click refund to begin the process of sending the funds back to the sender.

cash app refunding random person payment

  1. Confirm the refund: Cash App will show you one more screen confirming you’d like to refund the amount you’ve received. It will show the name of the sender, the dollar amount, and the message, if they’ve included one.

Refunding is simple on Cash App. I want to say one last time though, never refund someone you don’t know, even if you think you’re just helping them out. 

Is It Safe To Give Out Your $Cashtag?

In short, no, it isn’t a wise idea to give out your $cashtag. I know what you’re thinking, “Branson, your $cashtag is littered throughout this article!”. 

This is one of the rare times where I’d ask that you practice what I preach, and don’t follow in my footsteps!

Unless you work for one of the most popular online banking websites around, it’s generally not a good idea to give out your $cashtag to complete strangers. 

For your immediate group of friends however, it shouldn’t be a problem. 

About the Author

Lead Researcher, Digital Banking in the U.S. at TopMobileBanks

Branson Knowles is a former banker and current writer at TopMobileBanks.com.

During his years banking, he helped his clients discover their financial freedom through smart savings and spending goals. He started as a teller before becoming a banker and obtaining his federal licenses, furthering his clients' on their financial journeys.

After becoming one of the top producing bankers in the state, Branson decided it was time to pursue his own financial freedom. He started writing freelance finance articles before joining TopMobileBanks.com, breaking down banking like only an ex-banker could.

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