Newsroom

OFT welcomes Western Union consumer warnings

191/05    13 October 2005

The OFT today welcomes the help of Western Union, the largest money transfer business, in the fight against scams.

Western Union has joined forces with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Metropolitan police force and the OFT to help stamp out fraud by alerting customers to the risks of being the target of scams.

Money transfer payment systems are a quick and easy way to send money overseas. The convenience of such payment systems can be subverted by criminals to obtain payments from people under false pretences.

The OFT has worked with Western Union in the past to warn consumers about the abuse, by scam operators, of money transfer facilities to take payments from consumers targeted by fake lotteries, advance fee and 419-style scams.

The OFT has identified scams as a priority area for the next three years and last month launched the 'scambusters' team to deliver the OFT's strategy of enforcement, consumer education and cooperation with public and private sector bodies (see press release  175/05).

Christine Wade, OFT's Director of Consumer Regulation Enforcement, said: 'Scam operators undermine consumer confidence by exploiting legitimate systems. We very much welcome Western Union's initiative to educate consumers and try to prevent scammers getting money by disrupting their routes to markets'

NOTES

1. The OFT ran a campaign on Canadian lotteries (see press release 156/03) and issued a consumer alert on credit scams in January 2005 as well as having run a month long scams awareness campaign in February 2005 which warned people of a wide range of different scams in circulation.

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