You get an urgent text. At first glance, it looks like it’s from your bank. It says a suspicious $500 Zelle payment was just sent from your account. Naturally, you panic. You definitely did not send that. The text says: ‘To cancel this payment, you must decline it. We are sending a Zelle pay request to reverse the charge. Please approve it immediately.’ Then, you see the request pop up. You click ‘Approve.’ Just like that, your money is gone. This is the Zelle pay request scam, and it’s draining accounts precisely because it’s so clever.
