If Scammers Had a Victim Pay Them Using Western Union, Victims of These Scams Can Now File a Claim to Request Compensation
Due to joint investigations by the FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, Western Union in a recent settlement agreement, admitted to aiding and abetting wire fraud and agreed to refund $586 million dollars to victims of various frauds. The DOJ is now using that money to provide refunds to people who were deceived into using Western Union to pay scammers. Scammers contacted people and promised prizes, loans, jobs, discounted products or other financial rewards in exchange for paying them money upfront. They also pretended to be family members in need of cash or law enforcement officers demanding payment. The scammers told people to send these payments through Western Union. In reality, no one ever received the cash, prizes or services they were promised.
If victims lost money in connection with this matter in transactions between January 1, 2004 through January 19, 2017, to scammers who told them to pay via Western Union’s money transfer system, they(or their estate or attorney on their behalf) can now file a claim to request a refund by going to: www.westernunionremission.com
The deadline to file has been extended to May 31, 2018. Some victims who paid via Western Union may also have received a form in the mail from the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co. Victims who received that form should follow the instructions to file a claim. This claim process relates to separate civil and criminal cases against Western Union only and does not apply to victims who lost money to scammers who told them to pay via other money transfer systems such as MoneyGram.
Victims will never have to pay a fee to file an application to request a refund. Victims should never pay anyone who says they can file a claim against Western Union on their behalf; and, nobody will ever call to ask for a victim’s bank account or credit card number in processing an application for this program. It is free to file a claim form, and it can only be done online at www.westernunionremission.com, or by mailing the completed application and documentation to: United States v. The Western Union Company, PO Box 404027, Louisville, KY 40233-4027. It may take up to one year to validate each of the claims and to receive a refund. If a victim no longer has receipts documenting their losses, they should contact the claims administrator for DOJ (Gilardi & Co.) at 1-844-319-2124 in regards to how to verify their losses. Victims or the Estate on their behalf, may submit an additional explanation page with as much detailed information as possible to document losses.
For more information, victims may also seek guidance at https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/refunds/western-union-settlement-faqs.