Avoid Western Union!

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Master of Master Baiters Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 669

I wrote this to a lad yesterday after he pressed me for payment information.

Quote:

I did stop by the Western Union office before departing on my aforementioned travels. Unfortunately the agent who assisted me refused to allow me to do the transfer, and claimed you are some kind of scammer. When I tried to convince them that you were someone I trusted, they told me that they would not help me. I finally decided to leave when they took a very stern tone with me. Let me tell you, never before have I felt so belittled in a public place. Needless to say, I said some things to them that I should have kept to myself, but at least they know that they were being unprofessional. I even spoke to the office manager and believe I convinced him to have that immature agent fired. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Here's the lad's response. I got a kick out of how quickly he started bashing WU.

Quote:

Well I will advice that you try other Western Union agent in a fuel station or in a super market I am sure you will go through or better still you can go to the nearest Money Gram Transfer. I want you to understand that those guys at Western Union are nothing but enemies of progress and can do any thing to stop you from getting this compensation fund and so you have to be very careful when dealing with them. Do not disclose to them why you are sending the money .you just tell them that it is for an old friend.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:13 pm

Well played, Benjamin Franklin.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:47 pm

Nice

Now he will have to think of something else. piggy time Wink

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:57 pm

I've always know that WU are totally unreliable. That's why 9 out of 10 baiters use.... GP5 3-Track! The choice of a connoisseur!

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:57 pm

Using westy is a constant worry. See if you can find a westy run by someone from the same country as your lad. I'm sure once you explain the situation to them everything should run smoothly.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:04 pm

Unfortunately it is not only WU that is unreliable, Moneygram have just allowed $1000 of mine to be chopped. Laughing

Bad Moneygram Laughing

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 669

I'm glad to hear Money Gram is just as bad. Looks like I'll have to inform the lad that my MG transfer attempt was turned away as well.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 7:54 pm

Wow I went into Western Union tried to get money under a false name
and the guy beat me with a coat hanger.

Sadly dollar chopping elsewhere. i need to find an honest way to send my funds.

Master Baiter Joined: 03 May 2011 Posts: 237

On a serious note: Do you think the staff in Western Union would be likely to warn you if you were asking to send money to Nigeria? Or at least ask you some questions? It would seem the ethical thing to do, but maybe I'm wrong.

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:51 pm

^ Not sure if there is any rule on that. It's probably left to the discretion of the agent.

I went into a newsagent a few years ago just to pick up a westy form so I could scan it for use on lads and was given the third degree. It must have been my honest face because I don't think he did that for everyone somehow. Wink

I just nodded back at his warning as I didn't have the heart to tell him how much I knew about lad MO that he didn't. Razz

Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:56 pm

@Cpt. Tripps: That's something I've wondered as well. About a month ago my friend was robbed on vacation and needed some money to be sent ASAP so she could get a cab to the airport and eat. When I went into WU, I casually mentioned to the clerk that I was sending the money to a friend who had been robbed. Since this is a fairly standard scam type, I had hoped that the clerk would at least inquire as to whether or not I had actually confirmed the robbery (which I had, obviously), but she didn't. Perhaps she felt it wasn't her place. Not only that, but I went into two different WU locations (the lineup in the first one was very long) and neither had any sort of signage warning people about not sending money to people they don't know. I realize that they don't want to scare people away from using their service, but it would be nice to see them take a bit of effort towards awareness.

419Eater is my life Joined: 20 Apr 2006 Posts: 293

@ Tripps: many agents do try to warn people.

A good friend of mine worked a retail job that included a WU outlet. One day an elderly lady came in wanting to send money to someone in Nigeria. My friend is well acquainted with 419 scams and he told her it was definiately a scam. She insisted and said "I know the guy, I met him" (doubt that's true). He couldn't convince her to not send the transfer, so she got taken for $3000 despite my friend's warnings.

Moral of the story: if the victim is really hooked, the guy at the WU counter is the last person they're going to let stand between them and their millions.

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:46 am

In addition to what Canadon Alfa said,

Years ago a fellow IRCer fell for a vlad's date scam. The smart vlad had already warned him against "people who are standing between him and happiness". I think he eventually understood what several people tried to tell him. Probably thousands of euros later...

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:30 am

I checked out WU's site just out of curiosity.

Atleast in our localized version there's a "be aware of fraud"-link, under which you'll find the usual "don't send money to unknown parties", "opporturnities that seem too good are just that" and other generally accepted wisdoms Smile

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:37 am

The best use of mailed WU is the charity or banker who use a real entity and address. I've even faxed the reciepts when a fax number is online for the real deal. Very Happy

The lads claim the fax is broken, then I ask about the faxed reply I got. Major frustration. Best dolla chop is Red Cross thanking me for my donation.

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:51 am

Quote:

Best dolla chop is Red Cross thanking me for my donation.

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:52 am

I don't like all these lies. The vice president of Western Union has personally sent me an email assuring me that WU is a safe way to send money to the United Nations International Inheritance Bank in West Africa.

Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:18 pm

The problem is that by the time the vic gets to the 'send-££/$$/€€-by-WU-stage', the lad is not necessarily regarded by them to be a stranger.
One of the reasons why lads want to talk on the phone (apart from it being more flexible for them) is to establish 'best-friend' status with the vic.

WU can put up scam warnings in 140size block text on the subject of scams - if the vic doesn't think it applies to them, they won't read it.

Quote:

I did stop by the Western Union office before departing on my aforementioned travels.
//snip//
I even spoke to the office manager and believe I convinced him to have that immature agent fired. It was absolutely ridiculous.

Very inventive Benjamin F Smile

With your permission, I'd like to use that myself.. Wink

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 669

Definitely feel free to use that approach to discourage lads from insisting on using WU. Smile

I'm actually kind of curious to see how well it works with other lads.