Any real uses for western union?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2014 Posts: 17

Hi all, was just wondering if western union is actually used for legal purposes?

I have never heard anything good about it, what is the point with so many safe alternatives? Can they just not shut it down?

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2014 11:45 pm

Western Union is a totally legitimate business dating back well over a century. The fact that their service is abused by scammers does not make them complicit in any way.

There are millions of people who use Western Union every day. Many are immigrants sending money to family, who do not have bank accounts. Many others are sending money in an emergency. There are endless reasons why people might have a need for such a service. Not everyone has access to things like Paypal, or credit card cash advances, or even a checking account.

We don't advocate shutting down Yahoo and Gmail just because thousands of lads use their services. No different for WU and Moneygram.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

warbait wrote:

just wondering if western union is actually used for legal purposes?

Interestingly I have an old, yellowed telegram, sent via Western Union, taped in a scrapbook. It was a note sent home by a relative during the war.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:24 am

Juan Freizwidatt wrote:

There are millions of people who use Western Union every day. Many are immigrants sending money to family, who do not have bank accounts. Many others are sending money in an emergency. There are endless reasons why people might have a need for such a service. Not everyone has access to things like Paypal, or credit card cash advances, or even a checking account.

This. I only need to make a trip to a certain city slightly north of me, enter a certain WalMart during rush hour and I can observe a line of people of all different ethnic backgrounds waiting in line at the Western Union counter.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:33 am

I used Westy once about 25 years ago. It worked as intended and as I recall the Clerk was Stacked.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Jul 2005 Posts: 41

Quote:

There are millions of people who use Western Union every day. Many are immigrants sending money to family, who do not have bank accounts. Many others are sending money in an emergency. There are endless reasons why people might have a need for such a service. Not everyone has access to things like Paypal, or credit card cash advances, or even a checking account.

That. Just to emphasize.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 1:41 am

I once bought some perfume-making supplies from a soapmaker in Australia. I went to the post office in the USA and found that international money orders to Australia are not available. The postman recommended that I send it by Western Union. So I did. I got the stuff.

I'm editing a bait in which the lad asked me to go to the post office and send an occidental transfer of the union. I wrote back, "I still don't know what an occidental transfer of the union is. You mean a postal money order?" Postal money orders to Cameroon (it's a puppy scam) are not available either.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:43 am

But I do think that there is a stigma attached to Western Union these days.

Every time a magazine, newspaper, or TV station brings up scam awareness, they always say--if they ask for Western Union it's probably a scam.

I can see why people are leery of Western Union. Don't get me wrong--I totally agree that they do a lot of good, and more legtimate people use it than scammers. But they definitely have a bad reputation in some circles.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:53 am

I purchased some bitcoin though them. Very easy and convenient to use.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:18 am

^^^Bit coins have made it to the deep south Shocked

.

I've used it to send money to my wife overseas when her ATM card got mangled.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:48 am

I used WU a few years ago to lend a friend some money. I never got the money back, but that is hardly WU's fault. I sometimes get the feeling some of my friends might have some lad like tendencies, needless to say we aren't very close anymore.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 5:51 am

Juan Freizwidatt wrote:

We don't advocate shutting down Yahoo and Gmail just because thousands of lads use their services. No different for WU and Moneygram.

A good comparison. Thumbs up

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:22 am

Westy payments are a way of life for millions, it's just unfortunate that they get hijacked by lads because they are convenient, paying out hard cash, and much less traceable than using a bank account.

Many lads probably haven't a clue about Bitcoin, so could we pretend to pay their fees with it?

We could come up with all sorts of nonsense if we put our minds to it, like sending them jpg's of bitcoins, or files they can't open. Twisted Evil

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 3876

but getting a lad to download the whole blockchain of bitcoin could be fun Smile

currently, it's at ~20gb, and downloading it takes quite a while.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:25 pm

Western Union isn't the only thing to get abused by criminals, either in terms of financial instruments or physical hardware. It's all down to intent. Equally, WU provide merchant services for foreign trade, and a load of other things beside simple cash transfers... And they aren't the only cash transfer service out there that is being abused by a minority of criminals. If they didn't exist there would still be any number of ways of transferring money irreversibly. cash in the mail or concealed in a laptop? posting high value goods? prepaid Visa cards? Canning Western Union would inconvenience hundreds of thousands of people, but not the scammers.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2014 Posts: 17

I didn't mean to offend anyone, I didn't know many people relied on it. It was just the only times I had ever heard of Western union was involving scams.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:33 pm

Warbait, I'm sure you didn't offend anyone. It's good to ask questions, and this group is great at giving excellent answers Wink

I'm suddenly thinking about the bitcoin angle... Hmmmm!!!

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 10:44 pm

No offence taken here; quite the opposite really.

I like such questions/posts because I get to see others perspectives on such a Service.

Years back when I did use WU I don't think I had a Bank Card, I'm positive I didn't have a Credit Card and I needed to send money quickly to a Relative in need who had lost everything after being Robbed in Paris. As I noted earlier it worked although I'm not sure 'She' ever paid me back....

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2014 Posts: 17

Thats good then Smile

. I really wished I farmed some bitcoins a few years back when it was apparently a lot easier.

If you think you will be able to use the bitcoin idea, go for it Very Happy

, wish you luck!

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:28 pm

Roycropper wrote:

Many lads probably haven't a clue about Bitcoin

I've tried it with a few lads...they did not have clue. That has been 6 months ago though. Maybe it's time to try it again.

Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:34 pm

warbait wrote:

Thats good then Smile

. I really wished I farmed some bitcoins a few years back when it was apparently a lot easier.

If you think you will be able to use the bitcoin idea, go for it Very Happy

, wish you luck!

There you go. Get the lad on board with the bitcoin idea, then tell him it's going to take a while to get the bitcoin to pay him because you have to mine it.

Posted: Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:25 am

I have no clue what bitcoin is, I guess I will have to find out!

I remember days when there were no such things as ATM cards, let alone ATM cards acting as a Visa. I am old. <sigh> You actually had to go INSIDE the bank, stand in line, write out a withdraw slip, present it to a teller. You had to do all of that before 5pm Monday -Thursday or 6pm Fridays! No banking on Sat or Sun, you didn't make it to the bank M-F, SOL for the weekend!!! You also had to keep track of you check registrar to know how much money you had in the bank, you couldn't log on to the internet (wasn't available for general public at that time) to find out the status of your account.

If there is something that a criminal can use for his advantage, he (or she) will. It doesn't matter what it is, they will. There is nothing wrong with money transferring services, it's just advisable not to send money to someone you have never met before. Criminals (lads) take advantage of people who are not wise enough to not sending money to persons they don't know.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Jul 2014 Posts: 17

The only problem with this approach, is would a lad actually try to mine bitcoins? To someone who has never heard of them, it gives the impression you actually have to work for your money, which a lot of lads as we know, do the complete opposite.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 10:59 am

I wouldn't trust westy an inch. I've sent hundreds of transfers over the last nine years and not one of them ever arrived.

Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:10 am

warbait wrote:

The only problem with this approach, is would a lad actually try to mine bitcoins?

If he does it's fair enough. Mining bitcoin is a legitimate way of making money. If he got a job fitting tyres or digging trenches I'd have no objection either, quite the opposite in fact. Gotta be better than scamming.

He may find out after a while that the hardware demands are fairly massive .. but there's nothing wrong with trying.

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