WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced today that District residents who were deceived into sending payments to scammers using Western Union’s wire transfer service have until May 31, 2018 to apply for compensation from a $586 million fund administered by the Department of Justice’s Victim Asset Recovery Program.
This fund is the result of a multi-state settlement between the District, all 50 states and Western Union that was first announced in 2017. District residents may be eligible to receive compensation if they were a victim of a fraud-induced transfer using Western Union between January 1, 2004 and January 19, 2017.
“Our office is committed to protecting consumers from the multiple methods that scammers use to obtain their funds,” said Attorney General Racine. “In this case, Western Union failed to oversee its agents with sufficient care. That made it easier for scammers posing as family members in need -- or offering fake sweepstakes prizes and job opportunities -- to swindle consumers in the District. I’m pleased that District residents can now apply to recover some of the funds they lost.”
District residents who have already reported to Western Union, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), or to the D.C. Office of the Attorney General (OAG) that they had been the victims of a scam using Western Union will receive a form in the mail from the claims administrator, Gilardi & Co. The form will have a Claim ID and a PIN number to use when filing a claim online via the FTC’s website here. Gilardi was hired by Justice Department, which is responsible for returning victims’ money as part of its settlement with Western Union.
Filing a claim is free, so consumers should not pay anyone to file a claim on their behalf. No one associated with the claims process will ever call to ask for consumers’ bank account or credit card number.
If you did not receive a claim form in the mail but believe you may have an eligible claim, please visit http://www.westernunionremission.com or call 1-844-319-2124 for more information on how to file a claim. All completed claims forms must be mailed back to the settlement administrator by May 31, 2018.
Protecting Consumers from Fraud
If you are a District resident and think you may have been the victim of any kind of fraud, call OAG’s Consumer Protection Hotline at (202) 442-9828, send an email to consumer.protection@dc.gov, or submit an online consumer complaint via this webform. To learn more about how to protect yourself from multiple kinds of frauds and scams, visit OAG’s Consumer Protection Library at https://oag.dc.gov/consumerprotection.