A massive national settlement from Western Union means Washington residents may be eligible for up to $11 million in refunds.
The money will go to consumers who used the company’s wire transfer service to send money to third parties who then scammed consumers.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson says the company has an obligation to notify customers if they believe a transaction seems off.
“If they see and know that consumers are being harmed, they do have an obligation to avoid that from happening,” said Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
Ferguson says the money comes to our state as the result of a Federal Investigation that netted a $586 million settlement.
The feds say Western Union was used by fraudsters in all kinds of scams including the grandparents and foreign lottery scams.
“They were allowing folks to come in, use their services even when it was obvious. Hey that $10,000 being wired by a grandmother or grandfather to Jamaica probably wasn’t legitimate, they just let those go through and that’s not right,” said Ferguson.
If you are victim, know this, the amount of money available depends on one thing – if you were a person that filed a fraud complaint or fell victim to fraud, file your request for a refund.
“You have to take the affirmative action when the time is right to send in your request or your form to get those dollars back,” said Ferguson.
However, many details of who will be eligible for a refund hasn’t been released as of yet.
In the meantime, make sure you file a complaint and visit this website https://www.justice.gov/criminal-afmls/remission to learn more information.
