Stranger stole more than $1,000 from NC woman's Venmo, here's how to make sure it doesn't happen to you

A North Carolina woman is warning others after she got scammed while trying to do a good deed.

According to WSOC-TV, Brooke Carlson, of Charlotte, said she was having coffee with a friend when a man asked to borrow her phone to call his mom because his was dead.

She said he asked if he could go out to his car to find a phone number, the man even left his wallet on the table to ensure he would return.

He returned and gave her the phone back and it seemed like everything was fine.

That was until an hour later when Carlson said she opened the popular money-transfer app Venmo and discovered her balance of $1,430 had disappeared.

According to Carlson, a Venmo representative told her the balance had been transferred to a new debit card that was then deleted from the account. Even worse, it was an untraceable temporary card.

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ACCOUNT

Create a strong password: Use numbers, symbols and special characters

Log out of App: Make sure you log-out of the app when you're not using it, that includes making sure your phone doesn't save the password for easy log-in.

Add 2-Step authentication: By doing this you will have to enter the password and a PIN every time you open the app. You can also use the 'Touch ID' setting.

Set Account to Private: go to 'settings' then 'privacy' and make all transactions private.

Link Account to Credit Card: by linking the account to a credit card instead of a debit card or bank account you have more protection. Most credit card companies offer zero liability for fraud.