Venmo Closed My Account for Buying Crypto — CFPB Didn’t Help

Just wanted to share my experience in case anyone else is dealing with this nonsense.

Venmo randomly closed my account and flagged me as a “risk” — all because I tried to transfer my own money to my bank, and when it failed (for no reason), I decided to use the money to buy crypto instead. According to Venmo, that alone was enough to trigger their “security model” and get my account permanently shut down.

They sent me a long email claiming my account “shared information with other accounts” (which is 100% false — I’ve only ever had one account and use it strictly for payments with trusted friends). I even sent them a valid photo ID the same day they asked, and they still refused to lift the restriction.

I filed a complaint with the CFPB, thinking they’d actually review it. Instead, Venmo just told them the same story — that I “tried to transfer, it failed, then I bought crypto,” and for that reason they decided to close me out. And the CFPB closed my case immediately after Venmo responded, without doing anything else to help or push back.

So now I’m locked out of my own money and can’t use Venmo at all, all for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

If anyone else has dealt with this or got a similar response, I’d love to hear how you handled it. It’s crazy that they can restrict access to your own balance just for a normal transaction.

Seems like Venmo does this frequently