Education Key to Stopping Scams and Financial Abuse of Seniors
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
The Western
Union Company (NYSE: WU), a leader in global payment services, and
Better Business Bureau (BBB) today announced efforts to promote
awareness of scams that target seniors. June 15th is the
United Nations-designated World
Elder Abuse Awareness Day.
BBB
Scam Stopper was jointly launched by BBB and Western Union as a site
to help consumers reduce their chances of becoming a victim of a scam.
“Scams are a form of financial abuse. Scammers create an expectation of
trust that results in financial loss and considerable distress,
especially to older people who fall victim,” said Carrie A. Hurt,
president and CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. “Awareness
and education are the best tools we have in the fight against fraud.”
One prevalent scam that targets seniors involves prizes, sweepstakes and
lotteries. Another is the emergency or grandparent scam, where the
scammer pretends a family member is in trouble, and requests that money
be sent urgently to help.
“Through our BBB partnership, we want to give consumers the resources
they need to protect their hard-earned savings,” said Shelley Bernhardt,
Director of Consumer Protection at Western Union. “It is one part of our
commitment to consumer protection and empowerment.”
BBB
Scam Stopper explains the science of scams and how scammers gain
their victims’ trust. Visitors can sign up to receive BBB Scam Alerts,
weekly emails with the latest scams reported to BBBs across North
America. Western Union promotes three basic money transfer “never evers”:
1. Never use a money transfer service to send money to someone you have
not met in person.
2. Never send money for an emergency situation
without verifying that it’s a real emergency; ignore the caller’s plea
not to tell others; confirm through other friends and family.
3.
Never send funds received by check until it officially clears in your
account, which can take several days, or more.
Information on scams and how to protect yourself is also available at
Western Union’s Consumer Protection Center: http://www.westernunion.com/stopfraud.
About Western Union
The Western Union Company (NYSE: WU) is a leader in global payment
services. Together with its Vigo, Orlandi Valuta, Pago Facil and Western
Union Business Solutions branded payment services, Western Union
provides consumers and businesses with fast, reliable and convenient
ways to send and receive money around the world, to send payments and to
purchase money orders. As of March 31, 2013, the Western Union, Vigo and
Orlandi Valuta branded services were offered through a combined network
of approximately 515,000 agent locations in 200 countries and
territories and approximately 100,000 ATMs. In 2012, The Western Union
Company completed 231 million consumer-to-consumer transactions
worldwide, moving $79 billion of principal between consumers, and 432
million business payments. For more information, visit www.westernunion.com.
About BBB
For more than 100 years, Better Business Bureau has been helping
consumers find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2012,
consumers turned to BBB 124 million times for Business Reviews on more
than 4.5 million companies and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all
available for free at bbb.org.
The Council of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for
113 local, independent BBBs across the United States and Canada, as well
as home to its national programs on dispute resolution and industry
self-regulation.
WU-F, WU-G
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Source: Western Union