Western Union Money Scam
Have you received an unexpected email from Western Union about transferring $100,000.00 to your bank account?
If so Warwickshire Trading Standards Service is warning you to be wary of this latest phishing email.
During the last week Trading Standards officers have receive a number of complaints about an email which claims that “Western Union Money Transfer” is trying to deposit $100,000.00 from the International Monetary fund into people’s bank accounts. The email goes on to claim that Western Union is unable to complete a money transfer without additional personal information.
The email is sent from an email address which implies that the sender is Western Union, the legitimate money transfer company, but it is in fact a hoax address.
Warwickshire County Councillor Richard Hobbs, Portfolio Holder for Community Protection urges people to be alert to this sort of hoax. “We are very concerned at the number of phishing emails being sent.
"They are used purely in an attempt to obtain personal and financial information to create fake identities and commit further fraud and crime. Anyone who has an email address is a potential victim of this fraud; indeed our own Councillors in Warwickshire have reported receiving this very email.”
Warwickshire Trading Standards Service monitors and evaluates phishing emails, postal and telephone scams received from the public. The service liaises with the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to try and identify, source and stop the scams.
For more information please visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/tradingstandards.
If you think you have been the victim of a scam, or you suspect a scam, call Consumer Direct for clear, practical consumer advice on 08454 04 05 06