Consumer Alert
We’ve all known for a long time that scammers ask people to pay by wiring money. Money wiring companies like MoneyGram and Western Union have also known that scammers have people wire money using their services. In fact, the FTC has sued both companies – which have paid a lot of money to settle those charges – over exactly that issue. When the FTC settled with those companies (MoneyGram in 2009, Western Union in 2017), they also agreed to make changes to protect people from fraud. Except MoneyGram didn’t actually take some of those important steps.
That’s why the FTC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) just announced a new settlement with MoneyGram for $125 million. That money will eventually go back to people who wired – and lost – money to a scammer through MoneyGram starting in 2013. (There will be a date range for eligible refund requests. Exact dates will follow.)
Here’s the story: in 2009, MoneyGram had promised to vet the agents they were hiring, train them to spot fraud, monitor them to watch for fraud-related money transfers, take action if they saw an agent who didn’t try to reduce fraud, and also record fraud complaints and share them with the FTC.
But the FTC’s investigation showed that MoneyGram hadn’t adequately done those things – especially in their large chain outlets. And MoneyGram’s system that should have helped spot and stop fraudsters operating in plain sight? It basically didn’t work for a year and a half, letting millions of dollars in fraud-related transfers go through.
Now, MoneyGram has to put in place more protections that address all the ways it did not follow the order last time. And pay that $125 million to DOJ, which will work with the FTC to set up a refund program to get it back to people.
What should you do to get a refund? Right now, nothing. It might take several months for the refund process to even start. When it does, it will be free to request a refund. And we’ll tell you here and at ftc.gov/MoneyGram what happens next.
Search Terms
Topics
Scams
It is your choice whether to submit a comment. If you do, you must create a user name, or we will not post your comment. The Federal Trade Commission Act authorizes this information collection for purposes of managing online comments. Comments and user names are part of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) public records system, and user names also are part of the FTC’s computer user records system. We may routinely use these records as described in the FTC’s Privacy Act system notices. For more information on how the FTC handles information that we collect, please read our privacy policy.
The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.
We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.