FTC Announces Potential Relief For Western Union Customers

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that consumers who lost money to scammers or fraudsters through the use of Western Union transactions between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017 can file a claim to potentially recoup their losses. Consumers have until February 12, 2018 to file their claims which can be made at www.ftc.gov/wu.

The refund program follows a January 2017 settlement with Western Union, who agreed to pay $586 million to resolve charges brought by the FTC and the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The FTC alleged that fraudsters were able to use Western Union’s money transfer system to get payments from their victims, even though the company was aware of the problem and received hundreds of thousands of complaints about fraud-induced money transfers made for purported lotteries, prizes, family emergencies, online dating requests and other scams. The company also allegedly failed to promptly discipline problem Western Union agents, and failed to have effective anti-fraud policies and procedures.

This case highlights the importance of a robust complaints analysis program, an effective issue remediation process and the need to maintain substantive fraud prevention controls within a payment network. 

For more information on the FTC action, please visit https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/11/ftc-alerts-consumers-if-scammers-had-you-pay-them-western-union.