{"id":10546,"date":"2017-11-20T07:17:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T15:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/11\/20\/news-4318\/"},"modified":"2017-11-20T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T15:17:01","slug":"news-4318","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2017\/11\/20\/news-4318\/","title":{"rendered":"Fund Targets Victims Scammed Via Western Union"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:25:09 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you, a friend or loved one lost money in a scam involving Western Union<\/strong>, some or all of those funds may be recoverable thanks to a more than half-billion dollar program set up by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In January 2017, Englewood, Colo.-based Western Union settled a case<\/a> with the FTC and the Department of Justice<\/strong> wherein it admitted to multiple criminal violations, including willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program and aiding and abetting wire fraud. As part of the settlement, the global money transfer business agreed to forfeit $586 million.<\/p>\n

Last week, the FTC announced<\/a> that individuals who lost money to scammers who told them to pay via Western Union\u2019s money transfer system between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017 can now file a claim to get their money back by going to\u00a0FTC.gov\/WU<\/a>\u00a0before February 12, 2018<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Scammers tend to rely on money transfer businesses like Western Union and MoneyGram<\/strong> because once the money is sent and picked up by the recipient the transaction is generally irreversible. Such scams include transfers made for fraudulent\u00a0lottery and prizes<\/a>,\u00a0family emergencies<\/a>,\u00a0advance-fee loans<\/a>, and\u00a0online dating<\/a>, among others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Affected consumers can visit\u00a0FTC.gov\/WU<\/a>\u00a0to file claims, learn more, or get updates on the claims process, which could take up to a year. The graphic below seeks to aid victims in filing claims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The FTC says some people who have already reported their losses to Western Union, the FTC, or another government agency will receive a form in the mail from the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co.<\/strong>, which has been hired by the DOJ to return victims’ money as part of the settlement. The form will have a Claim ID and a PIN number to use when filing a claim online via FTC.gov\/WU.<\/p>\n

The agency emphasized that filing a claim is free, so consumers should not pay anyone to file a claim on their behalf. “No one associated with the claims process will call to ask for consumers\u2019 bank account or credit card number,” the FTC advised.<\/p>\n

This isn’t the first time a major money transfer business admitted to criminally facilitating wire fraud. In November 2012,\u00a0MoneyGram International<\/strong>\u00a0agreed to pay a $100 million fine<\/a> and admit to criminally aiding and abetting wire fraud and failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/krebsonsecurity.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 14:25:09 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you, a friend or loved one lost money in a scam involving Western Union, some or all of those funds may be recoverable thanks to a more than half-billion dollar program set up by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[10643,10642],"tags":[10664,10665,16686,8656,16687,10644,16688],"class_list":["post-10546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-independent","category-krebs","tag-federal-trade-commission","tag-ftc","tag-gilardi-co","tag-justice-department","tag-moneygram","tag-other","tag-western-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}