The Importance of WU

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Posted: Wed Apr 17, 2013 4:58 pm

Quite often on these forums, there are posts slating Western Union for the activities of scammers and on more than one occasion, people have suggested that they shouldn't deal with Africa.
Below is an interesting news report from the BBC which shows just why WU is so important to Africa.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22169474

A quick rundown of the story is that the African diaspora sends more money back home than is given to Africa in the form of Western Aid. It also explains how people tend to avoid the banks for transferring so that they don't get hit with taxation.
Maybe next time someone has a pop at WU for dealing with Africa, someone can refer them to the above.

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

Thank you for posting this.

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 3:33 pm

It isn't the modality that should be blamed, but the scammers using it. although I think the instant transfer services could do more to tighten controls.

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 3:52 pm

I don't think SOOI is condemning the Modalities we use to get Scammers off WU or MG so we can get bank accounts from them.

I think the reference is the notion that those services should stop doing business with African countries because of the scammers when the majority of business it actually conducts there is not Scammer related but completely legal.

Thereby penalizing the legal masses because of a few Bad Eggs.

(Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 11:48 pm

This subject has come up often enough that it might be worthwhile making it a sticky somewhere.

Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 10:21 am

it's a point worth making, as bank charges for international transfers can be extortionate. regular small payments via WU or MG would get swallowed whole. cash transfers are actually quite reasonable in that respect.

Equally as we have seen, almost any sort of currency transfer can be abused, from gift vouchers to commercial bank accounts. It's all down to who's using it.