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Exercise caution in fund transfer, Western Union tells customers

DUBAI — Western Union yesterday advised all consumers to use caution when using money transfer services to send funds to persons unknown to them or persons whose identity is not verifiable.

Earlier this month, many people in the UAE were receiving email, sent from the address Western Union . The subject column of the mail read: You have received $23. The message read: You have received $2300. Click the link directly to get MTCN. However, the MTCN ( Money Transfer Control Number) cannot be accessed. At that time Western Union had said that the email be ignored, the matter was under investigation and a statement would be issued later.

In the official statement released yesterday from its headoffice, the company said that the Western Union money transfer is intended as a fast, convenient, user-friendly service to transfer funds between two parties who know each other. "Please ensure that you know the beneficiary of your money personally, and do not fall victim to solicitation by strangers," it said.

It added that currently, two of the most prevalent types of fraud are phishing and so-called job scams. In the context of phishing, criminals contact consumers representing themselves as a legitimate business for the purpose of obtaining the consumers personal financial information. Once obtained, criminals may drain the consumers' bank account, charge purchases to his credit card or even open fraudulent accounts in the consumer’s name.

A similar type of fraud recruit innocent consumers to act as “financial managers.” In this job scam, consumers believe they are working for a legitimate business and allow funds to be transferred into their personal accounts.

"These funds, usually the proceeds of other criminal activity, then become much more difficult or even impossible to trace.”