On Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) nabbed four financial companies involved in Zelle. The CFPB’s lawsuit (through CNBC) accused Zelle’s operator (Early Warning Services) and three of the service’s partner banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank Of America and Wells Fargo — of failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud in the payment system peer-to-peer.

The CFPB says customers of the three banks lost more than $870 million during Zelle’s seven years as paid service. The suit claims that hundreds of thousands of customers who filed fraud complaints were denied meaningful assistance, with some being told to “contact the fraudsters directly to get their money back.” (Pro tip: Don’t do that.)

“The nation’s largest banks felt threatened by competing payment applications, so they rushed to get rid of Zelle,” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said. WRITES in a statement. “By failing to put the right safeguards in place, Zelle has become a gold mine for fraudsters, while often leaving victims to fend for themselves.”

The CFPB says one of the loopholes in the system is that its “tokens” (linked US phone numbers or email addresses) can be used and reassigned to different banks. The agency says fraudsters can take advantage of this by connecting the victim’s number or email to the perpetrator’s deposit account, causing payments for the consumer to go to the scammer’s account.

The lawsuit accuses Zelle and the banks of allowing repeat offenders to bounce between financial institutions with impunity. “Banks do not share information about known fraudulent transactions with other banks in the network,” the CFPB wrote. “As a result, bad actors may carry out repeated fraud schemes at multiple institutions before they are detected, if ever they are detected.”

The CFPB also admitted that the accused banks ignored red flags to prevent further fraud, report incidents consistently or on time, properly investigate customer complaints or take appropriate action.

On Friday, Zelle framed the government’s lawsuit as a political hit that would help criminals and force them to pay. “The CFPB’s attacks on Zelle are legally and factually wrong, and the timing of this case appears to be driven by political reasons unrelated to Zelle,” Jane Khodos, a spokeswoman for Zelle, wrote in a statement. “Zelle leads the fight against scams and fraud and has industry-leading payment policies that go above and beyond the law. The CFPB’s misguided attacks encourage criminals, costing consumers more bills , will stifle small businesses and make it difficult for thousands of community banks and credit unions to compete.

In September, JPMorgan Chase WRITES in a quarterly filing (through CNBC) that it will consider counter-litigation if the CFPB moves against the bank for its role in Zelle.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that President-elect Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans plan to limit the funding and powers of the CFPB, which aligns with the agendas of large financial institutions. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, his “government efficiency” advisers, have said they want to eliminate the agency, which was set up in 2011 in response to the 2007-08 financial crisis and resulting recession.

Killing the agency would require a congressional vote that is unlikely to pass, given the thin majority of Republicans. But they can do what Trump did in his first term: appoint a new director to slow down or stop regulatory actions, effective. kneel down the agency as long as they are in charge.