Wire Transfer & Western Union Fraud

Western Union is one of the oldest business in operation today - founded in 1851 as a telegram company, it is now one of the leaders in person-to-person money transfers. Western Union is a legitimate company, with a legitimate service that is almost entirely utilized by legitimate people and businesses. There is no way you can lose money through Western Union, so long as the person you are sending money to is a known, trusted individual. However, certain people have been exploiting Western Union's services to trick unknowing victims in to wiring money for goods and services that are poorly rendered, if even received at all.

There are many different scams that are run, using Western Union as a medium to get money from the victim to the scammer. The Better Business Bureau's Tom Joyce recently published a report about a relatively old scam that has been seeing more and more activity: The Lottery Scam. In this scam, the victim is informed that they have won some sort of a prize - for example, lottery winnings. A check may come with these letters for a large sum of money, and you will typically be asked to send back a relatively small portion of it via Western Union wire transfer. $300 from a $5000 check, for example. However, this check is a forgery. Changes are very good that if you take it to a bank, you will be able to cash it, but it can take as long as a few weeks for the bank to discover that it is a fraud - and when they do, you are held liable for every last cent that check was supposedly worth. At best, you are out a few hundred dollars if you didn't spend the rest of the money. Meanwhile, the scammer has gotten away clean with the money you've wired him.

The most important thing to remember is never, under any circumstances, to send money to people that you do not know through Western Union. Almost anyone who asks you to is trying to take your money, and you will not be able to get it back. So long as you exercise caution, awareness and skepticism when dealing with anyone asking for a Western Union or any other person-to-person wire transfer of money, you will never fall victim to these scams.