Chicagoans are reporting an increase in tap payment scams (Duarte & Andrew, 2025). With this type of scam, victims are defrauded while making a tap payment to another person’s phone.
Most of these scams involve a fraudster claiming to collect money for charity and will only accept tap payments instead of cash. After victims tap their card or mobile wallet to make a small donation, the account is charged for hundreds or thousands of dollars (De Mar, 2025).
Oftentimes, the scammers are very convincing, claiming to collect money for the victim of a shooting or a funeral expense (Duarte & Andrew, 2025).
To prevent falling victim to a tap payment scam, never tap your card or mobile wallet to a device of a person you do not know. If you would not hand a person your wallet, you should not tap your card mobile wallet to make a payment.
Works Cited
De Mar, C. (2025, February 21). Chicago woman lost nearly $5,000 in tap to pay scam, but bank wouldn't help her for months. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/tap-to-pay-scam-victim-lost-thousands/
Duarte, L., & Andrew, S. (2025, September 24). Tap-and-pay scams taking off across Chicago. Retrieved from WGN 9: https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/chicago-tap-and-pay-scam/