Western Union

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Master of Master Baiters Joined: 02 Dec 2008 Posts: 518

During my short trip to London, I was suprised at how frequent the Western Union branches are. In my home country there is maybe one Western Union point in my entire city, while in London they were literally 30 meters apart at times. Shocked

Has anyone else had the same suprise as me?

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

WU is quite a common payment modality, not exclusively used by scammers (obviously). I wasn't too surprised to see such an abundance in cities, although having one in Christ Church, Barbados was a shock!

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:12 pm

It is surprising how many there are. When I was in London I saw many too but also on a recent trip to the Canaries at New Year I saw a good few.

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:22 pm

There are loads of then in Glasgow as well now - quite scary!

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:28 pm

Hekate wrote:

There are loads of then in Glasgow as well now - quite scary!

Glasgow

Thats one place I wold never of thought they would be. I wonder if we will start getting Glaswegian scammers Laughing

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:34 pm

We have a lot more African people in Glasgow now, so I suppose that whereas once the lads stayed in London where they were not conspicuous, the same could be said of Glasgow now. There was a time when the sight of a black person (as opposed to an Indian or Pakistani person) attracted a lot of attention! No-one notices any more. Plus the increase in African population has probably also generated a lot more legitimate demand for WUs.

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:01 pm

I hadn't really taken notice until I started doing this.I live outside of Baltimore,and there are 3 within sight of my place of employment.My area has a fair number of Hispanic immigrants,so I suspect this has something to do with it.

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:55 pm

we only have one here in brisbane, queensland, australia

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:03 pm

There are a few around Sydney. Mostly in Post Office branches.

Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:35 pm

I must have some sort of OCD. If I see a WU poster in the window of a Post Office I always go in and pick up a few blanks forms and pamphlets that offer scam warnings. It's automatic now. I have a stack of WU forms in the desk...

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 2:57 pm

Here, all post offices and half of the night shops do WU.

Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:59 pm

It wasn't until I ended up here that I realized there was one in every grocery store in my town. And the post office. And ....

I guess it's like "your" car, you never notice how many are on the road until you get one yourself.

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 4:24 am

doc holliday wrote:

I hadn't really taken notice until I started doing this.I live outside of Baltimore,and there are 3 within sight of my place of employment.My area has a fair number of Hispanic immigrants,so I suspect this has something to do with it.

What part of Baltimore? I am in Reisterstown, so just curious.... Wink

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Sep 2008 Posts: 689

I don't remember seeing any when on holiday in Tunisia ... but there the government striclty control/censor internet access. I wonder if there's any correlation?

Then again the local shopkeepers and the like seem to go for the more direct approach of trying to swindle you out of your cash. The slight of hand one guy tried on me was totally pathetic!

WU shops abound in a lot of areas where I live, particularly those of high immingrant concentrations. Question

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:36 am

None in my area other than the post office and it's not advertised. I only found out by doing an on line search. I guess you have to ask for the forms. I was going to do a NN and take a hand full.

419Eater is my life Joined: 27 Jan 2009 Posts: 479

Maybe starbucks should start selling coffee there

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

I've just Googled my area for WU offices... more places than I imagined! A lot are travel agents, however there are papershops, and a Cashconverters too!

train boi Joined: 04 Nov 2008 Posts: 697

In Manchester there is litterally one everywhere, Moneygram is in the post office but everywhere else is western union, In the area I live there are alot of African and Pakistanis living there so assuming that has something to do with it

Even a petrol station and a chip shop have a western union office!!