A revelation at Western Union

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Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:13 pm

^^ I didn't make my point clear.

If there is a LIMIT online it should also apply to the agents in shops etc.

Is £500 a month a reasonable maximum sum an immigrant worker could send home to support his extended family?

My other point, again not expressed clearly, was would a scammer WAIT before making the next demand? If not the victim's loss could be limited.

Finally if Western Union were compelled to supply the sender with ID of receiver, and address of agent who paid the money they would enforce their own rules. Furthermore if they paid out in the wrong City/town/country they became liable to refund sender again they would soon improve their business practices.

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:33 pm

^^ I'm sorry, this is my first day off in a while and I'm quite burned out. My mind isn't quite processing the information too well.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the function of the limit as it relates to 419 scams. Even if the £500 limit is applied to agents, then won't it not do much more than constrict the loot rather than prevent it?

I'm sorry if I'm still missing the point. Do be patient.

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:57 pm

^^^NickTheCop

Quote:

My mind isn't quite processing the information too well.

I can identify with that Laughing

If Western Union was set up for immigrant workers to send money home to support their families. (In other words for people with no bank accounts.) There would be a reasonable amount the immigrant worker (often working in a sweat shop, or in other very low paid jobs) how much could they send home in a 30 day period? This means honest people using a service.

Scammers take advantage of this service to get con money out of people. Dishonest use of the service

Having set a limit for ONLINE transfers over a 30 day period they should enforce the limit throughtout their agencies so that a person cannot transfer more than £500 in 30 days.

At the moment the service rules are inconsistent.

If this is still confusing sorry.

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:02 pm

^^ All right, so what you're trying to say is that if WU make some effort at consistency with their policy, they can be more efficient at pinpointing and possibly preventing 419 scams.

Was that it?.. or close... kinda... no...?

Gah! Engaging my 7th and 8th brain cells is so painful. God help me if I have to make use of the 9th one as well.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I don't think WU originated to specifically allow immigrant workers to send money home. Confused

I've posted this elsewhere recently. WU is a cash wiring service that is being abused, much in the way that free webmail, the postal service, etc. are being abused. Sure, there is probably corruption at their outlets in West Africa. That is the least of the problems with corruption in West Africa. WU has all of this information on their website: http://www.westernunion.com/info/faqSecurity.asp

They are currently doing more than most fake site hosters whose services are also being abused. There are hosters out there who not only don't have any warning information available but are reluctant to remove fraudulent sites in the face of evidence. Site killers have been reporting this one to its hoster since December http://microxpwardlop.com/ Dora has even recently reported it to Microsoft and AOL to ask for their help in taking it down since it is using their names. Yep, it's still up.

Fraud existed before WU was available and without it the scammers would simply find another method. We bait for scammer bank accounts by claiming we can't use WU. How many bank accounts, collectively, have we reported? Tons.

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:56 pm

Ima Baeder says

Quote:

I don't think WU originated to specifically allow immigrant workers to send money home.

I stand corrected, but it is used by them to send to their families.

Quote:

The Western Union Money Transfer® service is a great way to send money to people you know and trust. If you need to send money to someone you don’t know well, you may be putting yourself at risk for fraud.

We all know by the time the scammer asks for money the victim 'feels' they know the scammer and trust him/her.

NickTheCop

If WU had to PROVE that the money had been received by the right person, and liable to refund sender,don't you think they'd be VERY careful
to enforce rules with ALL their agents?

9 brain cells? you're showing off!

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 10:09 pm

devil_woman wrote:

If WU had to PROVE that the money had been received by the right person, and liable to refund sender,don't you think they'd be VERY careful
to enforce rules with ALL their agents?

All right, but I though we were talking about enforcing sending limits. God damn it, now I know how the lad's feel when dealing with us.

devil_woman wrote:

9 brain cells? you're showing off!

Aw, please. You make me blush.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:53 am

@NickTheCop

I was multitasking here and covering both ends of the transaction, because there are two parties involved. Laughing

Quote:

Aw, please. You make me blush.

I can do better than that. Rolling Eyes

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:28 am

Western Union in Wikipedia.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 8:33 am

@ Seven of Nine

A big thanks for that link, I think this quote sums it up rather well.

Quote:

Western Union and other money transfer agencies often function as the primary banking service in immigrant communities through check cashing services, yet they remain unregulated by the Community Reinvestment Act and are unaccountable to their primarily low-wage customer base.

"primarily low-wage customer base "- include the victims of scammers her I think!

419Eater is my life Joined: 15 Apr 2009 Posts: 296

Wikipedia wrote:

Western Union has begun blocking transactions based on suspicion of terrorist connections, as a part of the company's involvement with the War on Terror. In practice, this has meant denying service to senders who specify recipients with Arabic-sounding names.

On the upside, I now have a whole new way to end the sentence "I can't use Western Union because..."

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 10:02 am

One of my coworkers is from Nigeria, and when she recently tried to WU her mother enough money to build a house, the WU office wouldn't transfer it. The manager came and asked her how long she had known the recipient and what the money was for, etc. She told them that it was none of their business, and so they proceeded to explain to her all about 419 scams and how they operate. Eventually she was able to send the money, but they had her break it up into smaller chunks to avoid the limit (which I thought was pretty funny).
Maybe there's hope that more WU offices will be more diligent.

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