Just got a message from my son who is traveling in Europe. He’s waiting for a replacement for his lost debit card. Anyway, he needs a few bucks to hold him over for a while. He asked we send him some via Western Union. I’ve never done this. Is is better to go to a WU office? Is doing it online risky? Anything I should watch out for? Thx.
Make sure it is him–do not assume it is. Western Union is synonymous with scam.
There’s at least a 90% chance that it’s a scam.
If you want more information, Google “stranded traveler scam.”
This is just ridiculous.
Just get the correct details from your son (pref speak to him) and get it done. I guess if you do it online then your details are there to be hacked but it might be easier if the office is a long way away.
Not sure too many open around here on Sundays.
I can see how the scam thing would be a concern. However, I know he lost his debit card and we’ve been going back and forth on various messaging apps. I’m not concerned that it’s him.
The most common use for Western Union is people from Mexico who are working in the US use Western Union to send money to family members back in Mexico. So, it certainly works for sending money to a relative in another country. Our local grocery store offers Western Union services right inside the store, at the customer service desk. I’m sure they’re open on Sundays but I don’t know if transit times might be different on Sundays.
Western Union in and of itself is fine. There are amount limits to online transaction vs. in-person.
https://thewesternunion.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/33/~/how-much-money-can-i-send-with-western-union%3F
Western Union sends the money instantly if that’s the option you select. What can delay the delivery is if the receiving agent in the destination country is not a “31” (silly Two and a Half Men reference). The recipient of the cash will have to wait until the agent is open for business. Alternatively, you can send the money, IIRC, directly into the recipient’s foreign bank account. Of course, you’ll need the bank account information. There’s a different fee for this and the processing time is a bit longer than the instant service.
If youu go to a Western Union location in the USA, they will just direct you to a kiosk where you fill everything out on a touch screen. When I tried it, it was a nightmare, if you do not have a WU account you will have to create one. I already had one and it refused to accept mine, even though I had no problem logging in as soon as I got home, but it then refused to accept a credit card transfer. I had to phone WU and find a location that was actually manned, and it was easy there, but there are very few such locations. I sent money to Kyrgyzstan, where people’s IDs don’t even use our alphabet, but it went through no problem. It was collected the same day.
If you succeed in wiring the money, the recipient will need to go to a location in your designated city and present acceptable forms of identification to get the money. WU charges about 10% commission, but as far as I know, it is safe as long as the recipient has proper ID. A scammer without the payee’s ID cannot collect the funds.
Checking online I found that our local Von’s grocery store is an agent. Pretty painless and I’m told the Euro-equivalent would be available soon at any WU agent in the country money is being sent to, in this case Germany. The cost for sending $300.00 was $24.00. I assume I paid a premium to have the money available “instantly.” I guess we’ll find out how instant that is.
I didn’t realize this service was utilized as much as it is. As previously noted, and here in So Cal, lots of transactions to Mexico.
I used WU quite a few times when my son was studying in Ecuador. I went to my local supermarket, which had a WU kiosk. You go to the kiosk and enter/speak all of the details, and then go to the supermarket service desk and hand over the cash. It was relatively painless and less expensive than other options to “send” cash. There was a WU office right next to my son’s campus, so it was fairly convenient on his end, as well.
And, yes to above, it is used a lot by immigrant workers to send money back home.
Hmmm. Yes, well I guess you can know its him this way if you can be sure he would be trying to use these apps … if he had lost access to all his messaging apps then he’d phone you up and tell you. If he still has access then he would see all the fake messages and tell you.
But if you think the son is off somewhere such as a trekking through isolated mountains, perhaps he wouldn’t have noticed the problem with the apps yet ?
I would still watch out for the scam. The simplest thing, before you send off hundreds of dollars, is to talk to him by phone. I’m sure he can call, if he can use apps to talk to you. Worst case, he can text you the phone number of a location where he is and you arrange to call there at a predetermined time. Actually talking to someone would be the very least I would do before sending a lot of cash.
Yes, my parents got taken in their late 80’s by the “stuck in Mexico in jail need money quick” scam. I’m sure the people did the old psychic trick of asking leading questions and incomplete statements to make them think they knew more details than they did, and my brother (who was not even travelling, not out of Canada) was supposedly stuck in jail in Mexico without money. If they’d even phoned his house instead of listening to some smooth talk, they would have figured it out.
BTW, I once sent money to our guide from Egypt as a thank gift - real simple. Our local supermarket was a WU agent. I needed his name (full name on Egyptian Government ID card), and I emailed him the information - US dollar amount I sent and a transaction code. He went to the nearest WU office with those three details, showed ID, and got his money. From what they said, he could have gone to any WU office in the country. They only gotcha - he received it in local currency, of course.
My son was in Germany this past summer for an internship. We sent his landlord rent money three or four times by Western Union. However, I could never make the online service work. I did it at the grocery store. Kroger if you care. The only problem was waiting at the Kroger customer service desk. A lot of people pay their utility bills and send money transfers at the grocery store. Once Western Union has your account information, it’s pretty easy.
There is no possibility for scam since you’ll have to provide your son’s full name and he’ll have to present valid identification in order to receive the money. If the name is incorrect, or if he doesn’t produce valid identification, no one’s getting anything and you can trot your way back to the WU join to reclaim the amount.
And yes, the money is available instantly - that’s WU’s business model.
Seems to me if his wallet was stolen and someone who looked like him went to pick up the money, the scam could work.
So you’re traveling overseas and you run into your exact twin?