Here's What to Do If You've Accidentally Paid a Stranger on Venmo (2024)

Venmo makes it easy to send digital payments to whomever you'd like, whether you're sending someone a gift, splitting the dinner bill, or giving a tip for a service. But, if you're not careful, you could easily type in the wrong amount or accidentally pay the wrong person. What do you do if you paid a stranger? Can you cancel a Venmo payment?

The short answer is no, you can't cancel a Venmo payment. Venmo has authentication measures in place to prevent this from happening, but once you've sent the funds to someone, it's pretty much out of your hands. If this has happened to you, here's what you should do, as well as how to limit the likelihood of this occurring in the future.

If you accidentally sent the wrong amount to a friend on Venmo, just follow up immediately after with a request for the difference. The good news is that funds on Venmo don't automatically get sent to someone's bank account — if they haven't started a bank transfer (which can take 1-3 business days to process), the money will be in their Venmo account and can be immediately sent back to you.

What if you sent the wrong amount and it's to the wrong recipient? You'll want to contact Venmo's support team right away by following the instructions in the below section.

If you've accidentally paid a stranger on Venmo, the best thing to do is to contact Venmo to explain the situation and try to coordinate a reimbursem*nt. The brand does not recommend reaching out to anyone you've accidentally paid unless you know them personally.

1. Navigate to Venmo's Contact Us page, and scroll down to the section titled, "Still Need Some Help? Let Us Know."
2. Fill out the required fields: Full name, phone number, and email address. When providing information on your issue, make sure to include the username of the person to whom you sent the money and the amount and date of the payment. Be sure to also include the username, phone number, and email address of the person you meant to send this payment to. You can also attach a screenshot of the transaction.
3. Hit "Submit" when you've filled out all of the information.

There isn't an estimated timeline for resolution or any guarantee from the brand that the funds will be reimbursed, but the sooner you contact Venmo's support team, the better.

There's some good news! If you've sent a payment by mistake and it's listed as pending, you will be able to easily cancel the transaction. This particular scenario would happen if you had sent a payment to an unverified phone number or email address.

Here's how to cancel a pending transaction:

1. In the Venmo app, tap the "Me" section, then toggle to "Transactions" underneath your profile picture.
2. If you have a pending transaction, it should be listed at the very top. To cancel it, tap "Take Back."

The easiest way to help prevent payment mistakes on Venmo is to always double-check the amount and recipient before you hit "send." If you're not completely sure you're sending funds to the correct person, you can do any of the following:

• If you're with the person you'd like to pay, ask them to open Venmo, tap the QR code in the upper left-hand corner, and toggle "Venmo Me" to generate a QR code. You can scan this to open their Venmo profile and make the payment from there.
• If you're not with the person you'd like to pay, they can either send you their Venmo handle or toggle to the "Venmo Me" tab, tap the "Share" symbol, and send their profile to you via text.
• If you're paying someone who isn't in your contact list and you have no previous transaction history with them, Venmo may ask you for the last four digits of their phone number as a precautionary measure. While you can dismiss this authentication and send your payment to them anyway, it's a good idea to verify this with the person directly.