Consumer complaint received 2019-04-07
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Money order
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I bought a MoneyGram money order for {$400.00} on XXXX to pay a credit card bill. I sent this to XXXX XXXX XXXX in their pre-printed envelope. However, after several weeks, XXXX XXXX claimed they did not receive it. ( I think they did but someone within their payment processing center stole it ). 

So I contacted MoneyGram for a cancellation of the original and a replacement. I agree to pay them {$18.00} for this service. At that time, they also asked to whom I had written out the money order to. I let them know it was XXXX XXXX. So they knew the payee. They also knew that I was the payer. On XX/XX/2019 they sent me an email telling me my case number was XXXX. On XX/XX/2019 they sent me another email telling me the money order remained uncashed. Then on XX/XX/2019 they sent another email telling me the money order was cashed and they would not send a replacement. 

The money order had been altered ( they sent me a copy of the cashed money order ). The original information had been " whited out '' and the money order was rewritten to a different payee and from a different payer. Also, on the very bottom, one can see numbers under the signature that whoever the fraudster was didn't even bother to white out. Those are the four numbers I wrote there which are the last four numbers of my credit card I put there for identification. Looking at the money order it is obvious information had been changed. ( Note : this is hard to see on the scan of the copy of the money order I have attached, but it is obvious on the copy MoneyGram sent me. ) So MoneyGram did not send a replacement money order or cancel the original after I requested such -- and agree to pay {$18.00} for -- even though they said they would as the original had not be cashed at that time. And by the time the original was cashed, they KNEW it was fraudulent because it had both a different payee and payer than they KNEW it should be. 

So instead of my credit card company receiving this payment, the fraudster received it. So I am out {$400.00}. 

I did everything right. MoneyGram did everything wrong. They should have sent the replacement as I asked them too. They should not have cashed the original money order knowing both the payee 's name and the payer 's name on the money order had been altered. And they knew that because they asked and I told them who the original was written out to -- XXXX XXXX -- and that I -- XXXX XXXX -- was the payer. And they knew that I was asking for a replacement because the intended recipient had not received the original I sent them ( or claimed they had not anyway ). And at that time the money order had not been cashed -- MoneyGram told me that. Yet, MoneyGram then accepted that altered money order knowing both the payee and the payer on the money order had been changed. 

Note it is impossible to contact Moneygram by telephone and talk to an actual person. I have tried. I go through multiple menus and end up nowhere. My contacts with them have been by email.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation