Venmo is a great way to send instant payments to friends, family, merchants and more, but it is also marketed as a social media app. Users can not only see payments made by other users, but they can request money from anyone on the app. This opens the doors for bots and scammers to try and solicit money from the Venmo community. This is not only annoying, sending you unwanted notifications and emails, but puts Venmo users at risk of being scammed out of money.
Unfortunately there is no way to simple way to put a stop to unsolicited payment or friend requests. You can make your transactions private by navigating to Settings > Privacy and taping Private. This will keep all your payments visible to only the sender and recipient, and cut down on your visibility on the app.
To block a stranger, tap the three lines inside the Venmo app, then go to the Search People screen. From here search the username you want to block, open their profile, then tap the three dots in the upper right hand corner. Finally, tap the red Block button to block that user.
Besides making your account private and blocking suspicious accounts, just be aware of who you are sending payments to. Never send a payment if you're not one hundred percent sure who the recipient is, and double check with friends, family and merchants before ever sending money through the app.