Blocked on Venmo or Account Deleted: How to Know?

Here’s everything about when someone blocked you on Venmo or deleted their account:

The best way to know if someone blocked you or deleted their account is to search for them on the app. 

If you can’t see them, then it’s for one of these two reasons. 

If you want to know if you were blocked as opposed to them deleting the account, search from another account and compare the results.

So if you want to learn all about how to know you are blocked by someone on Venmo or the account was deleted, then you’re in the right place.

Let’s get started!

Blocked on Venmo or Account Deleted: How to Know? (Do This)

Why Is it Hard to Tell Whether Someone Blocked You on Venmo or Deleted Their Account?

When someone blocks you on Venmo, it looks exactly like they deleted the app. 

They disappear from your visibility, so without a bit of investigation, you really can’t tell which is the case. 

The main reason for that is Venmo’s privacy policy, so let’s explore that together.

Privacy on Venmo

This is the real issue. 

Venmo holds the position that part of privacy is allowing users to block each other anonymously. 

If you block someone on the platform, they will never receive a notification telling them as much. 

Instead, you simply disappear from each others’ Venmo networks.

To be clear and specific, if you block someone, they cannot see your account. 

You won’t show up if they search for you. 

They cannot send you messages, and they cannot send money to you or receive money from you on the site.

The reverse is also true. 

When you block them, you can’t find them in searches, see their profile or send/receive money with them. 

Because of this, it makes it tricky to be sure if someone disappeared from your network because they blocked you or because they deleted their account. 

It looks the same from your end.

How Can You Check Whether Someone Blocked You on Venmo or Deleted Their Account?

Ok. 

Now, we can get into the nuts and bolts of answering this question. 

Even with privacy policies and everything else, it’s actually possible to find out if you have been blocked or not on Venmo. 

All you have to do is search for the person in question.

While that sounds simple, it’s important that I take you through the process. There are a few key details that matter here.

Search

Open up Venmo and log in if necessary. 

Use the search feature, and look for the person who you think might have blocked you or deleted their account. 

If you see them in the search, you are not blocked, and obviously, they haven’t deleted the account either.

If you can’t see them, then there are only two possibilities. 

Either you are blocked, or they have deleted their account. 

At this point, you can’t tell which is the case, but you know it’s one of the two.

Before moving on to the next section, let me take a moment to clarify something. 

This is easiest to do if the person in question is one of your contacts. 

If you haven’t established them as a contact, then you need to double-check that the search is including non-contacts.

When you do the search, select the option that says “see more results.” This will expand what you see. 

If after doing this you still don’t see the person in question, then you know for sure that you are blocked or they have deleted their account.

How Do You Know When You’ve Been Blocked on Venmo? (2 Ways)

At this point, you only know that one of the two scenarios is at play. 

How do you verify if you’re blocked or not? 

That’s a simple thing in principle and a potentially challenging idea in practice.

Basically, you need to search for the person using an account that you know hasn’t been blocked. 

This is based on that same simple fact above. 

If you are blocked, then that person doesn’t show up in your search bar. 

So, if you can search from an account that definitely isn’t blocked, you learn everything you need to know right there.

#1 Have Someone Else Check

Arguably the easiest option here is to check from a friend’s account (or have a friend check). 

You use the same search method. 

If the name shows up in this search and not yours, then you have been blocked. 

If it doesn’t show up in either, then you have not been blocked. 

Instead, the account was deleted.

There’s one trick to keep in mind, though.

It’s possible that your friend’s account has also been blocked. 

If that’s the case, you might think the account in question was deleted, even though that might be the case.

That’s why it’s best to check with a friend who doesn’t know the person in question. 

If they have never interacted, then there is not much of a reason to block them, and so it’s unlikely that you’re running into that scenario.

#2 Make a New Account

If you want to be 100% sure, then the best solution is to make a new account. 

Since Venmo uses financial information, this isn’t ideal for everyone. 

You might not want to go through the verification processes and create a whole new account. That’s understandable.

Regardless, if you do make a new account, then you know it hasn’t been blocked. 

You can’t block accounts in Venmo that don’t already exist. 

So the person in question cannot have preemptively blocked your new account. It’s pretty simple.

Once you have the new account up and running, do that same search again. 

Remember that you will have to “see more results” since they definitely aren’t in your contacts at this point. 

If you see them, you know you have been blocked on your other account. 

If you don’t, they deleted that Venmo account altogether.

How Do You Know When They Deleted Their Account? (2 Points)

The above methods work. 

Whether or not you are comfortable with those methods is up to you, but it’s a foolproof way to get an answer to the question at hand. 

That said, there are other ways to approach this situation, and they are worth covering too.

#1 Ask

If you have a way to contact the person in question, it’s always an option to directly ask them if they blocked you or deleted their account. 

Sure. 

But, if you think you might have been blocked, it can be an awkward conversation. 

On top of that, if you were blocked, they might not respond to other communication attempts. There are a lot of possibilities here.

But, if you don’t think you’ve been blocked and it’s really a matter of a deleted account, asking them directly might not be that big of a deal. 

You can ask why they deleted their account, and their answer will tell you what you want to know.

#2 Social Engineering

You can also take a social engineering approach to this question. 

Instead of asking them right out, you can try to set up a scenario where it makes sense to send them a Venmo request. 

Offer to split the cost of something, and make sure that you’re in a position to pay for that thing yourself. 

You can then say something along the lines of “Can you Venmo me your half?” in order to push the conversation. 

One way or another, you’ll likely get an answer.

Author

  • Theresa McDonough

    Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.

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