‘Gas settlement’ email citing Venmo or Zelle is legit, California says

Did a suspicious email land in your inbox, promising settlement money at Venmo or Zelle?

The message goes like this: “This payment represents your share of the California v. Vitol Settlement. More information visit vlc.calgaslitigation.com.” In one instance, a blue circle (with a Venmo link) said the recipient should click to “Accept Money from California v. Vitol Settlement Administrator.”

Recipients then have to log into their bank or Venmo accounts to claim the money. This raised hackles and prompted myriad social media posts in which recipients asked if the email was phishing or the real deal. “Is this legit? Should I click it? Why is it asking for my phone number?”

Yes, it’s real, the California Attorney General’s Office says. And yes, a nearly $22 settlement is going to claimants via Venmo, Zelle or a paper check.

“We have been able to confirm that claimants were given a choice of how they’d like to receive their payments in this case, either check or electronic transfer, which did include the option to use Venmo,” the AG’s office said in an email on Friday, May 9. “Starting late April, over a million Californians who filed valid claims before the claims submission deadline started receiving payments for $21.65.”

The money comes from a $50 million gas price manipulation settlement negotiated by the state with the Dutch company Vitol, SK Energy Americas and its parent SK Trading International in South Korea.

Attorney General Rob Bonta’s lawsuit claimed the companies conspired to raise gas prices after the ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance went offline after a February 2015 explosion. In the May 2020 complaint, Bonta said the companies “took advantage of the market disruption … to engage in a scheme to drive up gas prices for their own profit.”

Read Bonta’s press release here.

“Petroleum companies should not get to reap mass profits out of the pockets of hardworking Californians through illegal market manipulation,” Bonta said in October.

A settlement was reached in October 2024, at which time residents were urged to file a claim.

The money is going only to those who bought gas in Southern California between Feb. 20, 2015, and Nov. 10, 2015, and subsequently filed a claim late last year.