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Man uses victims' Venmo app to steal money at Oakland's Lake Merritt
A man has been secretly using unsuspecting victims' own cell phones to secretly steal thousands of dollars using their Venmo app. Oakland and Albany police are investigating.
Oakland - Victims are speaking out after being bilked by a man who secretly stole thousands of dollars via their Venmo apps as they walked near Oakland's Lake Merritt.
"It felt very violating just to have that happen to me. I mean, I love walking the lake, and I heard there's various crime issues et cetera, so I could have been more aware," one woman told KTVU. She did not want her identity revealed.
It started with a simple request from a stranger as the woman was walking near the pergola at the lake in November.
"(He) stopped me, asked me to take a picture of him. He had his camera out, or his phone, and he was like taking pictures of the lake," she said.
So she did, using his phone. Then, the man told her he was a rapper who'd be performing that night at the Fox Theater downtown.
Scam happens after victim hand over their phones
What we know:
He asked for her cell phone to add his name on her Spotify music app.
"And he kept speaking, like friendly-like, as he was supposedly looking up Spotify that I had opened, right? And unbeknownst to me, he was actually opening my Venmo account," she said.
It wasn't until later that she realized the man had secretly sent $3,000 from her Venmo to someone else.
"You're affecting people's lives by doing this. I mean, obviously it's criminal activity and it's just affected my life," she said.
More than a dozen victims
By the numbers:
She's not alone.
KTVU has learned from court records at least 14 other people have been similarly scammed near Lake Merritt in the past seven months. The total loss, at least $42,000, apparently by the same man who asked to type his name into the victim's Spotify, SoundCloud or Instagram apps.
Albany police have also reported a similar case along the waterfront in September.
Three years ago, a Reddit post warned of an identical scam at the lake.
In one of the recent Oakland cases, $3,000 was mistakenly sent via Venmo to a woman who tells KTVU she then got phone calls every 15 minutes from a number she didn't recognize.
"From what I can tell, they had a similar last name to me, and that may have been the reason that it came to me instead of their co-criminal partner," she said.
When the victim reached out to that number and a suspicious Instagram account — posing as the mistaken recipient — she says she got a message saying "He plays with pistols" and for the victim not to mess with him.
People walking the lake had a number of reactions.
"I'm really mystified that people have such faith in humanity that they would allow people to take their phone and try to be nice," said Jerry Murphy of Oakland.
Avery Paige of Oakland said simply, "People are tricky, especially with technology."
Venmo says they've reimbursed funds and do not tolerate fraudulent activity. They say anyone suspecting fraud should contact customer service through their website or app. But in some cases, victims say the man deleted their Venmo app, which delayed notification of a funds transfer.
Oakland and Albany police have requested records from Venmo in hopes of identifying the owners of the accounts that received money.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on X @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan
The Source: KTVU reporting, Oakland and Albany police