"Venmo scams work so well because the scammers know a few things that you don’t. They are taking advantage of your assumption that because transacting on Venmo is simple and quick, it is also always safe. They are gambling that in Venmo’s murky realm of “merchant transactions,” the businesslike act of “sending your roommate half the rent” might be kosher won’t be. Most importantly, they are exploiting the little-known fact that funds flickering onto our phone screens with a perky green plus sign and a couple emojis are not really ours as instantaneously as they may seem. In short, these scammers are slipping into the gap between what Venmo has taught us to expect and the reality of what both the company and America’s underlying financial infrastructure are actually able to handle, and they’re blowing it wide open...
“The current systems that [the United States has] in place for consumers don’t allow for real-time payments or instant payments, but instead just create this illusion that the funds are good and immediately available,” says Jordan Lampe, director of policy at mobile payments network Dwolla and a member of the Federal Reserve committee tasked with improving America’s payments infrastructure. “We send emails, they get delivered instantly. We send text messages, they get delivered instantly. … So when these things continue to run up against the expectations of a business or an economy, it creates real problems and concerns.”"
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/09/venmo_scam_and_fraud_why_it_s_easy_to_get_ripped_off_through_the_mobile.single.html
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