Zelle has come out fighting by sharing its new fraud rate amid facing legal action from New York’s attorney general.
Early Warning Services (EWS), the network operator of Zelle, has reported fraud and scams make up 0.02% of total transactions.
Many fingers have been pointed at Zelle in recent months, with the peer-to-peer payments service coming under fire for a rising number of reports customers were being scammed on the platform.
The latest case, filed in New York, saw Attorney General Letitia James allege EWS violated state law by running a platform “highly susceptible to fraud” while doing little to stop it, all while marketing it as safe and secure.
A key driver behind the case was rising scam reports which last year drew scrutiny from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The agency filed a suit against EWS alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo, claiming they failed to adopt effective anti-fraud measures and routinely denied reimbursement to victims.
That case was dismissed in March 2025 amid moves to reduce CFPB oversight. It was in this gap that James opened her state-level case against EWS, aiming to keep the spotlight on Zelle.
In response, EWS has pointed to its own data, showing just 0.02% of all Zelle transactions are reported as fraud or scams.
A colourful release
This figure came as part of a press release positioning Zelle as an essential tool in the US economy. The company claimed it is “tracking the pulse of the American economy one payment at a time,” highlighting August as its biggest month ever, with more than $108bn sent.
The release also pointed to growth in person-to-small-business payments, which were up 30% in volume with the average payment size increasing by 5%. Payouts from small businesses to individuals rose by 22%. Rent payments grew by 13%, with the average rent payment rising from $914 to $958 dollars.
Zelle also stated it had recorded an increase in weekend payments (18%), while childcare payments climbed by more than 7%, with the average amount reaching $174.
The most direct nod to the ongoing legal scrutiny was the comparison Zelle itself offered: “You are more likely to get food poisoning (3%), be in a car accident (around 2%) or get injured by a toilet (0.07%) than experience fraud or scam related to Zelle.”
“The most powerful financial crime-fighting company you’ve never heard of”
The release also sought to explain why its fraud numbers remain low, crediting Early Warning’s long-standing security operations.
“Early Warning is the most powerful financial crime-fighting company you’ve never heard of,” said Ben Chance, General Manager of Early Warning’s Identity and Payments Risk business. “
For more than 30 years, we’ve worked with banks and law enforcement to stop billions in fraud and financial crime – everything from organised crime rings to kidnappings – with agencies ranging from the FBI and US Postal Inspection Service to local police.
“We’ve also worked closely with federal agencies including the US Treasury and Federal Reserve Bank to stop hundreds of thousands of improper federal payments worth hundreds of millions of dollars. That same expertise powers Zelle, helping protect the money of hardworking American consumers and small businesses every day.”
The company added Zelle uses billions of “trust signals” to spot patterns and block scammers. It said bad actors are permanently removed once identified and that it has enforced strict anti-fraud rules since its 2017 launch.
It also said its predictive fraud detection tools are given to banks and credit unions at no cost, enabling suspicious payments to be stopped in real time before money leaves a customer’s account.
The case in New York remains ongoing.
