I Thought It Was A Zelle Scam But It Was A Real Mistake (us, Ny)

Hello all.

At some point last year I got $250 from a person I did not know. I thought it was a scam so I did what I knew to do: nothing. If somebody called for it back ignore it and contact my bank.

It happened a second time so I ignored it again. I was certain the transactions were getting stuck on “pending” anyways.

The third time it happened I called my bank to see if they could block the person, they told me to do it using the Zelle app. I tried using the Zelle app but it redirected me to my bank app because in Chase it’s integrated, but because of this integration I could not block the person.

I called Chase again and they told me to Zelle the money back to the person — I didn’t do that because from what I’ve seen online you’re really not supposed to do this unless you know the person, and at this point I didn’t.

It happened a few more times and I ignored all of them. Again, maybe I sound stupid, but I was certain the money wasn’t really getting deposited otherwise I would have been getting calls or requests for returns. Only one time I received a request for $10 from this person, which I also ignored.

Fast forward to today, I am out of the country on vacation and last night I get a text that basically says “Hey this is so and so, you babysat my kids one time on 2023. I am so sorry I thought I was sending money to my cleaners but it went to you. Please let me know when you can pay me back”.

I did not reply last night because I was out and it sounded weird that their cleaners didn’t bring it up to them that they didn’t pay them over 10 times. I was planning on talking to my husband and try to figure out what to do today.

Anyway, I wake up this morning to another text saying “Hi it’s me again I’m sorry but the total that went to your account is $3000 please let me know if you’re gonna Venmo or Zelle it back”

So I’m at a bit of a loss here. I don’t have 3k to spare right now and everytime I Zelle people I have to go through a screen that tells me to confirm the person’s identity and to beware of scams. I feel like it’s common sense to also check if the person received the funds.

And just for clarification, the one time I worked for them I was covering for my husband’s cousin and she worked with them for many years — so it’s not just a random person either.

I’m going to talk to them at some point but I would want to know where I stand. Is there anything I need to know about this situation? Anything I should be doing?