Chase Bank is going to make it harder to use Zelle for transactions stemming from social media. In an update to its policy on Zelle, Chase says it may “decline or block” payments related to purchases from social media marketplaces or messaging apps, as spotted earlier by Bleeping Computer.

The new policy, which goes into effect on March 23rd, 2025, says it’s supposed to help prevent scams:

To help protect you from fraud and scams, the Zelle Service should be used for payments between friends, family, and others you trust and should not be used to pay for goods from recipients with whom you are not familiar… If you are sending a Zelle payment from your Chase account that is identified as originating from contact through social media, we may, in our discretion delay, decline or block that payment.

The company also says it may request more information when you add a payment recipient to Zelle, including the purpose of your payment, how you contact this person, and “other details we deem appropriate to assess whether your payment has elevated fraud or scam risk, or is an illegal, ineligible or improper payment.”

This change follows a lawsuit filed in December by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which accuses Zelle and three banks that own it (Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America) of failing “to protect consumers from widespread fraud.” At the same time, the CFPB is losing information from its website and social media channels along with employees as the Trump administration and Elon Musk-directed Department of Government Efficiency make cuts.

“Zelle is designed for sending money to others you know and trust, not for buying things on social media,” Chase spokesperson Emma Eatman said in a statement to The Verge. “We’ve updated the language in our Terms and Conditions to help our customers protect themselves from scams that overwhelmingly originate from contact through social media platforms.”

A Chase webpage says 50 percent of scams reported in the second half of 2024 came from social media, like this one reported by Tom’s Hardware, where a scammer attempts to obtain a seller’s Zelle account details by sending a fake payment through a phishing link. It adds that Zelle doesn’t offer purchase protection, meaning ”it’s highly unlikely you’ll get your money back if it’s a scam.” If Chase suspects you may be trying to use Zelle over social media, the company may block or delay the payment while it verifies your identity and the person sending or receiving money.

The Verge reached out to Zelle with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.