Is it much better elsewhere with instant payments/transfers? The EU reports similar fraud issues with their instant payments systems.

In one of its latest reports, the European Banking Authority (EBA) has highlighted a surge in impersonation fraud and sophisticated online and social scams, often leveraging new payment methods such as instant payments.

With the EU, I only see instant payment regulations for enabling the payer to verify the payee

A Verification of Payee (VoP) service informs payers of any discrepancies between the payment account identifier given and the name of the intended payee. Payers will get a result (i.e. “match”, “close match”, “no match” or “other”) before initiating the payment, thereby mitigating the risk of fraud.

and screening of transactions for sanctions. Their payment services regulations

• require strong (multifactor) authentication & dynamic security protocols for online transactions, which makes authorization hard to contest & reimbursement of unauthorized transaction unlikely
• make consent/authorization for transactions irrevocable once the payer initiates or the payee receives the payment order, so instant payment transactions are pretty much final
• obligate the user to safeguard credentials & have them bear all losses of unauthorized payments if “with intent or gross negligence” they fail to uphold those obligations.

Zelle likewise provides payee name for verification, offers multifactor authentication, and treats payments as irrevocable, so I’m not sure what more to expect here that isn’t pretty much the same elsewhere.