Greg's Corner

Wire fraud victim gets money back from scam

Most often we discuss how to recognize a scam to keep from you losing money. Very rarely do we discuss how to get your money back after a scam. That’s because once a scammer takes your money, especially electronically, they can virtually disappear and never be heard from again. However, one man was able to get the money back that his elderly father was scammed out of.

The victim in this story was an elderly man who was told that he had won $250,000 in a sweepstake. As is usually the case in sweepstakes scams, the scammers told the victim that he needed to pay a processing fee before he could collect his winnings. The scammers instructed the victim to wire the money to them through Western Union which he did.

Realizing they had a vulnerable victim on their hands, the scammers are said to have convinced the victim to send over $90,000 during a 44 day period. This was all allegedly done through Western Union.

The victim’s son tried to convince his father that this was a scam but his father wouldn’t believe it. Of course, the victim never received any winnings.

The son, however, stumbled across a news article about a settlement the Department of Justice had with Western Union. The DOJ claimed that Western Union turned a blind eye to obvious scams and scammers. Western Union settled with the DOJ and a $153 million fund was set up for victims of fraud who paid through Western Union. The victim’s son was able to file for full compensation for his father.

In doing some research for this story, we also found that a similar action had previously been levied against Western Union’s biggest competitor Moneygram.

Wire transfers like Western Union and Moneygram are only second to gift cards in the ways scammers try to get their victims to pay them. If someone you don’t know personally is asking you to make a payment through one of these services it’s more than likely a scam.