I'm writing this review to help other people understand the risk they are taking when using Venmo. We all read over the terms and conditions, but there is a lot that the average person wouldn't understand... or else they wouldn't use Venmo.

I began using Venmo for things like splitting the check at a restaurant. Then I graduated to using Venmo for bachelorette party planning, events and vacations. I've used PayPal for over a decade so when I read that Venmo is backed by PayPal, I decided to trust them, however I discovered through experience that they are backed in name only. Venmo is not FDIC insured (no shocker there), but it also doesn't hold funds in an FDIC insured environment the way that PayPal did in its earlier days. As confirmed by an employee, they are not insured so the risk and liability in regards to using their app is transferred to the individual. Here is what happened:

After noticing that people were paying my landlord their rent through Venmo, I decided that I would pay him that way, too. I see it in my feed for other people all the time, happy little house emoticons with the words "rent". They don't realize that they're casting their 1000+ to the wind.

We'd been living together for about 2.5 years save a short break once and I trusted him. I watched his kids from time to time, came over to dr op off Christmas presents when I wasn't living there. In short, he was not a stranger. He moved to another apartment (trashing my apartment in the process and leaving it that way), but since he was my landlord, I would continue paying him, right?

Wrong. Because it turns out he wasn't my landlord. One day the real landlord came over and we had a nice "Who are you? No, who are you moment?" I'd used Venmo to pay my rent to a fake landlord who in turn had not forwarded the rent to the actual landlord. So now my fake landlord is not just illegally subletting the place (and for more than the actual rent), he is also stealing my money. By the 5th, the real landlord had not received a check. I reached out to Venmo and was informed that there was nothing they could do to stop the processing payment, so I'd have to find another way to resolve the issue. So I called my bank.

Glory, hallelujah! The transaction was still processing. My bank canceled the payment, charged me a fee and told me to inform Venmo, which I did. I never got a response from Venmo but a few days later, I received an email from Venmo.

'Payment on this item has been stopped byyour bank. Don't worry, we covered you and {this criminal} has the funds. However you now owe Venmo $1,200.00. Your account has been frozen... until you settle this debt.'

I reach out to Venmo support. Silence. I reach out to Venmo support the next day. Silence. I reach out to Venmo the third day by opening a new case. Ah, a response. "When you make a payment through Venmo, you agree to make the payment regardless of the situation. Venmo does not offer any dispute resolution services."

Another employee eventually followed up to add "Due to the fact that we do not provide resolution services, we only recommend completing transactions on Vemno with people you implicitly trust."... I wonder who she thought I was sending money to, if not someone I implicitly trusted. Someone who has trusted me to watch their children, someone I have trusted to watch my niece.

Venmo has since sent me an email threatening to send me to collections. My new roommate paid first, last and deposit to the fake landlord. We're both in bad shape with no recourse. And to make financial matters worse, we had to sign a new lease at market rate and pay first and deposit to the real landlord. We may never get our money back from the fake landlord because we used an app that transfers the risk and liability to the individual rather than an insurer.

In short, Venmo is "backed by Paypal" in some way, but it probably isn't the way you're thinking of. If I had used the PayPal app or my bank, I would have my money back by now.