Shopping Discussion

Is this a scam?

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Deal Addict
Aug 8, 2006
1265 posts
340 upvotes
Vancouver

Is this a scam?

I work as an agent for Western Union.

I had an elderly caucasian lady come in and ask to send $2000 to some guy in China. So I thought that's strange and I asked her if she personally knew the person she was sending this money to. She said no.

I asked her what the money was for. She claims she paid for some online services and they refunded her. They accidentally refunded her $3000 instead of $300. So they asked her to send the remainder back via Western Union.

I advised her not to send the money because it sounded scammy to me. And that that if they accidentally refunded too much, tough cookies for them.
Is this a scam? I didn't get the full details from her, like how they refunded her, what she bought. I just advised her not to do it because they could easily reverse that $3000 refund after she sent her own money to them.
Does anybody know what the hell was actually going on or if its even a scam? lol
32 replies
Deal Addict
Feb 6, 2008
1331 posts
1060 upvotes
Hamilton
Sounds legit to me.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
$300 says scam

https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/frau ... types.html

Overpayment

With overpayment scams, fraudsters play the role of buyer and target consumers selling a service or product. The “buyer” sends the seller a legitimate-looking check, usually drawn on a well-known bank, for an amount higher than the agreed-upon price. They contact an explanation for this overpayment and instruct the seller to deposit the check and wire back the excess funds. Weeks later, the victim learns the check is fake, but is still on the hook to pay the bank back for any money withdrawn.


Not quite identical but close enough.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Nov 4, 2008
7675 posts
10977 upvotes
Scarbs
How can I become a victim?
When given enough time, all threads on RFD can and will go off on a tangent.
Deal Guru
User avatar
Aug 20, 2012
13879 posts
3290 upvotes
Pacific Ocean
death_hawk wrote: $300 says scam

https://www.westernunion.com/us/en/frau ... types.html

Overpayment

With overpayment scams, fraudsters play the role of buyer and target consumers selling a service or product. The “buyer” sends the seller a legitimate-looking check, usually drawn on a well-known bank, for an amount higher than the agreed-upon price. They contact an explanation for this overpayment and instruct the seller to deposit the check and wire back the excess funds. Weeks later, the victim learns the check is fake, but is still on the hook to pay the bank back for any money withdrawn.


Not quite identical but close enough.
Agreed... heard of this yrs ago... SCAM!!! OP is just version of this with buyer/seller reversed.
If the glove don't fit you must acquit! #WINNING
Deal Addict
Dec 8, 2009
1136 posts
634 upvotes
Must be scam, which company uses western union for service fee? Lucky old lady happened to meet you otherwise she just lost 2k in the blink of an eye.
wilson_wu wrote: I work as an agent for Western Union.

I had an elderly caucasian lady come in and ask to send $2000 to some guy in China. So I thought that's strange and I asked her if she personally knew the person she was sending this money to. She said no.

I asked her what the money was for. She claims she paid for some online services and they refunded her. They accidentally refunded her $3000 instead of $300. So they asked her to send the remainder back via Western Union.

I advised her not to send the money because it sounded scammy to me. And that that if they accidentally refunded too much, tough cookies for them.
Is this a scam? I didn't get the full details from her, like how they refunded her, what she bought. I just advised her not to do it because they could easily reverse that $3000 refund after she sent her own money to them.
Does anybody know what the hell was actually going on or if its even a scam? lol
Newbie
Jun 19, 2011
13 posts
3 upvotes
wilson_wu wrote: I work as an agent for Western Union.

I had an elderly caucasian lady come in and ask to send $2000 to some guy in China. So I thought that's strange and I asked her if she personally knew the person she was sending this money to. She said no.

I asked her what the money was for. She claims she paid for some online services and they refunded her. They accidentally refunded her $3000 instead of $300. So they asked her to send the remainder back via Western Union.

I advised her not to send the money because it sounded scammy to me. And that that if they accidentally refunded too much, tough cookies for them.
Is this a scam? I didn't get the full details from her, like how they refunded her, what she bought. I just advised her not to do it because they could easily reverse that $3000 refund after she sent her own money to them.
Does anybody know what the hell was actually going on or if its even a scam? lol

Yes I work at a financial institution and I can tell you this is most likely a scam... Dont quote me but this is what/how the scam usually go. Someone signs up for some type of service/mystery shop/whatever... you name it and you are promised a payment. They send you a counterfeit/altered cheque and tell you to deposit it into your account. The cheque is usually from a larger corporation since they do their books once every month with many debits/credits. Usually banks hold your cheque for up to 7 days (if you are not that great of a client, but if you are a client in good standing chances are you cheques are not going to be held). For example: In this case they sent a cheque for $3000... they ask the client to keep their share and send back the rest. Client thinks the cheque is good since the bank did not hold it nor did it bounce after 7 days (assumed it was cleared). The victim will send back the money via wire payment or western union since it cannot be returned. Everything seems good until a few weeks after the victim's deposit is returned for an altered cheque. The victim is now short that amount in which they need to cover and pay the bank back or risk being sent to collection.

Hope it helps!
Deal Guru
User avatar
Apr 23, 2004
14972 posts
213938 upvotes
Montreal
Hi there,

Are people that stupid? :( Lucky for you, you know what are the red flags out, you might have save this lady some serious money (and headache). Koodo to you. You should also report it to your supervisor so they can forward this warning to the other chains...

Ju Leon...
Deal Addict
Aug 8, 2006
1265 posts
340 upvotes
Vancouver
echo_jey wrote: Must be scam, which company uses western union for service fee? Lucky old lady happened to meet you otherwise she just lost 2k in the blink of an eye.
Actually it was my coworker. He was just about finished processing the transaction. I just happened to stand beside him and see on his screen that this lady was sending a huge sum to a foreign country. It sent red flags and I immediately interjected and told him to hold off on processing the transaction until I grilled her. lol

You always have to keep an eye open for people.

I always prod customers over the reason they're sending the money and I always tell that them I am only asking because I'm watching out for their financial wellbeing and 100% of my customers appreciate me doing that. I've always expected a customer to yell at me for asking too many questions. lol

-----

There was another customer a year ago sending a large amount who I prodded over and over whether he knew the sender. I asked 4 times FOUR and I even apologized for being annoying but I just wanted to be sure because he was a new sender and I was watching out for his wellbeing and that he should not send if he didn't know the guy because once the money is gone, it's gone. He promised me he knew the guy.

Lo and behold, he came back to me and was crying that he was bilked through 4 different WU agent. He came back to me because I was the only one watching out for him and he should have listened to me when I was telling him all the warning signs. I sent him to the police.
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Jun 1, 2006
7972 posts
9092 upvotes
Toronto
wilson_wu wrote: I work as an agent for Western Union.

I had an elderly caucasian lady come in and ask to send $2000 to some guy in China. So I thought that's strange and I asked her if she personally knew the person she was sending this money to. She said no.

I asked her what the money was for. She claims she paid for some online services and they refunded her. They accidentally refunded her $3000 instead of $300. So they asked her to send the remainder back via Western Union.

I advised her not to send the money because it sounded scammy to me. And that that if they accidentally refunded too much, tough cookies for them.
Is this a scam? I didn't get the full details from her, like how they refunded her, what she bought. I just advised her not to do it because they could easily reverse that $3000 refund after she sent her own money to them.
Does anybody know what the hell was actually going on or if its even a scam? lol
Thx for posting this!
It looks like this is an older type of scam, but I've never heard of it before until know.

The best weapons against lowlife scum trying to scam you are common-sense and knowledge
I swear to drunk I'm not God 😝
Member
User avatar
Apr 17, 2010
202 posts
47 upvotes
Toronto
I recieved a similar proposal from a job application. They sent a few instructions and a cheque for $3,000

Exact same thing, the job was for a mystery shopper. Go do a transaction at a money market and evaluate the customer service. You keep X percent as payment.

I called the bank the cheque was drawn on and they said it's fraud.

To the person who said are people that stupid, no. I was desperate for work. I had bills to pay.

After months of being turned down, it was exciting to have what seemed like a job offer.
Deal Addict
Oct 18, 2007
4377 posts
1595 upvotes
OP, you are a good man. The best you can do is to ask them questions and hope some red flag pops up for them to stop themselves... if they insist on continuing, like that 2nd example, there's not much you can do except shake your head at them...
Deal Addict
Aug 17, 2008
4128 posts
946 upvotes
Sask.
^ I'm impressed, too, OP. Nice to know there are people out there looking out for others.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Nov 7, 2007
3260 posts
909 upvotes
Northern Hemisphere
Glad you helped out someone so kudos to you!

And the scam has been used for a while now even though it's old, some people still fall for it which sucks.
For wars they come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal.- Tupac
Deal Addict
Aug 8, 2006
1265 posts
340 upvotes
Vancouver
Someone came to ask questions about Western Union today, not to do an actual transaction. He also asked me if I was familiar with Paypal.

He was telling me that he was trying to sell his car via Paypal to someone in the United States. They were going to pay via Paypal.
The only problem was he had to create a Paypal account but he would have to pay Paypal $500 via Western Union to access/receive his payment for the car.

I told him PayPal was free, aside from a percentage of fees taken when you receive the money. I also told him Paypal was a competitor and that they sucked for sellers because it's so easy for buyers to complain and get their money back from chargebacks. :[

Be careful out there folks. So many shady people on the internet. Damn.
Penalty Box
User avatar
Nov 13, 2010
7814 posts
1867 upvotes
Scarborough
WHERE is/was the FAMILY of this old woman, nobody looking out for her from her own family/friends/relatives, etc ??

extremely sad if her family/relatives are not aware of it, specially knowing there are so many scams targeting senior citizens these days. Are people just dumping their old folks these days?
Sr. Member
User avatar
Jan 4, 2008
773 posts
189 upvotes
Gatineau
wilson_wu wrote: I work as an agent for Western Union.

I had an elderly caucasian lady come in and ask to send $2000 to some guy in China. So I thought that's strange and I asked her if she personally knew the person she was sending this money to. She said no.

I asked her what the money was for. She claims she paid for some online services and they refunded her. They accidentally refunded her $3000 instead of $300. So they asked her to send the remainder back via Western Union.

I advised her not to send the money because it sounded scammy to me. And that that if they accidentally refunded too much, tough cookies for them.
Is this a scam? I didn't get the full details from her, like how they refunded her, what she bought. I just advised her not to do it because they could easily reverse that $3000 refund after she sent her own money to them.
Does anybody know what the hell was actually going on or if its even a scam? lol
Something stinks with this post

1. Why are you discussing specific work matters on a forum for? When you work for a place like Western Union, there are confidentiality clauses. You have made a very detailed post which would be easy to trace back to you.

2. Why would you question a customer if they are paying cash, that's not the way they do business at W.U.

3. Of course you know it's a scam, it's been going on for 10+ years. Why would you even bother asking this?

Nope me thinks you are like farming, which is cool and stuff
Sr. Member
Apr 29, 2008
591 posts
165 upvotes
Toronto
exiledinottawa wrote: Something stinks with this post

Nope me thinks you are like farming, which is cool and stuff
What do you mean 'farming'?

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