GREAT NEWS for victims of scams that paid through Western Union. In the past if you wired money through Western Union to pay the upfront fees of a scam, your money was gone. It was basically impossible to trace since the people obtaining the money used money mules to pick up the money from Western Union for them. Now this has all changed with this news just announced:

For years, many people who lost money to scams sent their payment through a Western Union wire transfer. Scammers contacted people and promised prizes, loans, jobs, discounted products or other financial rewards in exchange for 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 money through Western Union. No one received the cash, prizes or services they were promised.

Because of joint investigations by the FTC, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, Western Union agreed to pay $586 million and admitted to aiding and abetting wire fraud. The DOJ is now using that money to provide refunds to people who were tricked into using Western Union to pay scammers.

The Federal Trade Commission is alerting consumers who lost money to scammers who told them to pay via Western Union’s money transfer system between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017, that they can now file a claim to get their money back by going to www.FTC.gov/WU before February 12, 2018.

If you have not been contacted and did send money to a scam via Western Union during this claim period, contact the FTC IMMEDIATELY.