You’ll want to read the complaint for details, but here’s just one example.
Of Western Union’s total network of 515,000 agents, the FTC says a small number account for the vast majority of consumer complaints. And those “Wire money to get me out of jail!” scams that target unsuspecting family members generated 41,897 complaints and at least $73 million in losses. Fraudulent lotteries accounted for another 75,543 complaints, totaling $86 million in losses. According to the lawsuit, the company’s own in-house data documented that.įor example, between 20, Western Union received 146,909 complaints about bogus online purchases, totaling at least $187 million in losses. Many people use Western Union’s money transfer system to send money to family and friends, but Western Union also was a fan favorite of crooks and con artists around the world. The global $586 million settlement, which also resolves separate Justice Department criminal investigations into the company’s failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act, sounds a cautionary note for other businesses to consider the company they keep. It didn’t end there because according to the lawsuit, even in the face of obvious evidence that many of its own agents were complicit, Western Union ignored it while pocketing massive cash. “For many years, Western Union’s money transfer system has been used by fraudsters around the world to obtain money from their victims.” That’s how the FTC’s complaint against Western Union opens – and it tells a compelling story of a corporation the FTC says knew that massive fraud was afoot and had the ability to address it, but chose to look the other way.
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