A $Cashtag (sometimes just called a cash tag or cash app tag) is a unique identifier for an individual or business using Cash App. Is it safe to share your cash tag with strangers though?

Unlike a bank account number, it is 100% safe to share your cash app tag with strangers online. Cash App is designed so that both your cash tag and your cash tag URL (https://cash.app/$yourcashtag) can be shared online without compromising your security.

In fact, the sole purpose of a cash tag is to be shared with others. However, while a stranger will not be able to hack your account or steal your money with only your cash tag, they can use your cash tag to request money from you. For that reason, always verify that you know what a cash app payment request is for before you pay it. There are four common scams that people may use when requesting money from you.

1. Someone claims to be from cash app customer service, says there is some sort of problem with your account, and asks you to verify your account by sending a small payment. THIS IS FAKE. No one who actually works for Square (the company that owns Cash App) will EVER ask you to send a payment to them to verify anything.
2. Someone says they will send you money if you first send them a smaller amount of money to verify you are a real person. This is one of the oldest scams in the book. The scammer will take your small payment and never send you the money they promised.
3. Someone asks you to pay for something in advance (e.g. a puppy from the next litter). Most payments made with Cash App are instantaneous and irreversible which means if you pay a stranger for something you haven’t received yet, they can then take your money and disappear without ever giving you what was promised.
4. Impersonation scam. In this scam, someone creates a Cash App profile with a picture of either a celebrity or someone in your own life and then requests a payment from you while pretending to be this other person. To avoid being scammed by this, make sure you actually know the other person, verify that their name, cashtag, email, or phone number (whichever is being used to request a payment from you) is correct and doesn’t have some weird typo slipped into it, and verify that the payment is actually for something real.

In general, the way to avoid all of these types of scams is just to ensure that before you make any payment, you verify that you know the person you are paying and that you know what the payment is for. As long as you take those precautions, you can share your cash app tag without anxiety (the cash tag shown in the photo above is my real cash tag).