Common Western Union scams!

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Common Western Union scams include, but are not limited to the following:

Scam # 1: Seller asks you to pay by Western Union and tells you it will be safe because you can make out the payment to the name of one of your friend’s or relative’s names, but put the seller’s address on the payment. You will then tell the seller the control number (identification #) of the payment so he can go to Western Union and verify you have made the payment. Once you receive the shipment, you will go to Western Union and change the name to the seller’s real name so that he can pick up the money.

Why it’s a scam: Once the seller knows the address or control number of the payment, he can go get the payment and send you nothing. Many Western Union agents in foreign countries never ask for identification.

Scam #2: Seller asks you to pay by Western Union and tells you to make the payment using Western Union’s “secret question” feature. This feature is designed so that the Western Union agent will ask a secret question to whoever is picking up the money, and he must get the answer right in order to collect the money.

Why it’s a scam: Again, many times Western Union agents do not ask the question, and only care if the person knows the address or control number, especially outside of the United States. Western Union even advises on their website not to rely on the secret question feature.

The Scam On Facebook

It all started on Facebook. A woman posted to a local buy-sell group with a Thermomix for $350. Now, that’s a bloody good deal as those things usually go for $900. I’ve been eyeing them for a while, so I know. This is a fantastic price. I check the woman’s profile out and she looks legit: she has a long-standing profile, some public photos and is a part of some other groups in the local area. Fair enough.

Her message says to contact an email address, which is doubly odd because the email address doesn’t match her name, but whatever. She tells me she bought the item a few months ago, but now has to travel for work. She can’t use it because she’s away, and she’d prefer the cash. She has left the Thermomix with her brother-in-law who can bring it around whenever I’m free. Sounds reasonable, right?
So, I’m still thinking this is okay. I ask about the payment. People round here like cheques, but if I were selling, I’d prefer to be paid in cash. So, I ask. She says she’d prefer a Western Union transfer, which I can do via the post office or online. I mention that I’d rather not send money before I see the item and that if I can send a payment online I can do that while her brother-in-law is here watching me. That or pay him in cash and he can wire it to the seller. This is far more sensible.
But no, she tells me Western Union has this password protection set up. I nominate a password and when I’ve seen the goods I tell her brother in law what it is (or email her with it). To me, that sounded like a decent escrow system. I even chatted to my firend about it and we agreed that Western Union sounded like they had a good system in place. I very nearly went ahead with this, until I had a moment to stop and think about it.
So, if I wire this money to a person I don’t know with only a password between them receiving the money or not, what is to stop them bribing or whining their way to getting the clerk to hand it over?

The Red Flags

The problem with scammers is that they have perfected the art of sounding harmless. All of the red flags were released drip-by-drip so that they didn’t look altogether dodgy at a glance.
The first red flag should have been the price. Secondly, the email address not matching. Subsequently, the offer to deliver to my house, then the elaborate payment system and the brother-in-law. Why couldn’t I just pay when he arrived? And why is this person ringing from a private number?

When she sent the email with the payment details I realised she wanted me to send the payment to Benin. Where’s Benin? Oh, right next door to Nigeria. Another red flag. And the name didn’t match hers. Giant. Red. Flag. And why did the details look like a cut-and-paste job? Red Flag!
The final red flag was when the supposed brother-in-law started asking for the transaction number of the payment before he arrived. To begin with, that sort of made sense. But when I thought about it, once he had that transaction code, the only thing stopping them from having my money was a clerk I don’t know in a country I don’t know, who may or may not bother asking for a password. That’s not very secure. Not at all. And with that in mind, they may not even need the code. I’m sure a friendly clerk could look the transaction up for them.

Lessons Learned

So, the crisis was averted. I am still the owner of my $350 and I’ve gained a scary tale to tell. But what I will re-iterate is this: Don’t send large amounts of money via the Internet to people you don’t know, even if there’s a supposed password system in place. Also, just because a Facebook account looks legitimate is no reason to believe it’s not a scam. The real Facebook user may have been hacked, or the scammers might just be really good. The Facebook element makes it all the more dangerous, as nowadays we are likely to believe the identities behind these profiles are who they say they are.