New(ish) Internet Scam and Western Union

[Quillan]

I received an French email yesterday which is a spin on a old scam that has been doing the rounds.

 

In it’s original form the scam appears to be a job offer from Honda. The basic idea is that you will become a financial agent in Europe for them. They will send small engines to Europe, the type that power lawn mowers etc and you will collect the money on their behalf, take a commission and forward the balance by Western Union.

 

The French version is about doing the same thing for a finance house based in the UK and again taking a cut and sending money by Western Union.

 

In both cases you will be sent cheques or bank drafts for a lot of money. You forward the money on (less your commission) by Western Union and then of course 6 to 8 weeks later the bank phones you to tell you the cheques or bank drafts are forged.

 

Why does it take a while for these scams to be spotted? Well when they first start out and people loose money they are never too happy about letting others know they have been taken as a fool by these people so they tend to keep quite. So it takes a bit of time for it to become a recognised scam.

 

I can give you two tips. Never get involved in anything that looks to good to be true and never use Western Union. The reason for not using Western Union is NOT because they are not a reputable company but because they are not secure. By this I mean the money is wired and a person needs only a passport as proof of ID to get the money at the other end in cash. Nobody knows where they live and you can’t get your money back.

 

As a side issue, if you use Ebay never use Western Union either, especially this time of year (Christmas), you won’t receive the goods. Ebay strongly advise never to use them or any other company that uses the same method of money transfer.

 

Having said that Western Union is very good for sending money to family and friends that you know well anywhere in the world. We used them when our daughter had her handbag stolen on holiday and she had the  money in hours.