Consumer complaint received 2020-11-17
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — International money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: MONEYGRAM PAYMENT SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE INC (CA)

We've been the victim of a scam on XXXX XXXX XXXX involving sending money to XXXX for an apartment lease for our daughter. I reported the fraud to the company ( MoneyGram ) and they responded by closing my account. I'm making this complaint for two reasons : 1 ) I think MoneyGram does not put nearly enough emphasis on NOT sharing their reference code ( especially for first-timers like myself ) 2 ) People should be aware of scams like this. It preys on people who are unfamiliar with wiring money plus it leverages MoneyGram 's lack of emphasis on warning to " not share the reference code with anyone other that the receiver ''. 

Summary : Our daughter is starting college in XXXX and we find a XXXX XXXX XXXX ad that looks good. It's cheap, clean and close to the center of the city. We ask him some questions by email. He responds reasonably ( calling himself XXXX XXXX XXXX and we tell him we're interested. He says he lives in XXXX  ( an hour plane flight ), His family owns the unit and when he needs to show it, he flies to XXXX. He wants to make sure we're serious so he made a request that sounded reasonable at the time : He asks us to wire money to our daughter and send him the receipt as proof that the money is there, then after he has proof, he'll fly to XXXX to show the apartment. If our daughter likes it, they both go together to a MoneyGram store where she can get the money by presenting her photo ID, then she can give him the money. We found XXXX XXXX on XXXX and he indeed lives in XXXX. We thought he was legit ( because we don't do this type of thing much )! 

We sent a transfer to our daughter on XX/XX/XXXX using MoneyGram ( " XXXX '' asked us to use that service in particular ). We received an email receipt from MoneyGram for the transaction that we later forwarded to XXXX. 

Our daughter arranges a time with XXXX to see the apartment. A few days later ( but before our daughter sees the apartment ) XXXX contacts us again and says he has another interested party who will pay 6 months rent up front. He wants us to send two additional months rent up front by the same method or he'll have to give it to the other party. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we agreed and sent the additional funds to my daughter. After second transaction is completed there is a final pop-up on the website that repeated the same security warinings that they had display previously but this time I notice the last warning was, " do not share the reference number with anyone except the reciever ''. The reference number was on the first receipt that I had already forwarded to XXXX. I also notice the status of my first transfer says " complete '', the status of the second transfer says " money ready to pick up ''. My stomach sinks. I think, why would the status be different if she hasn't picked up either transaction yet? Then I realize all " XXXX '' needs to do is create a fake ID with my daughter 's name and with the reference number anyone can take that money. 

Always thinking the best of people, I sent him the second receipt BUT with the reference numbers replaced with XXXs and explained to him the warning I was given. I hoped this would be good enough proof. I was hoping to give him a link to the MoneyGram website that has the warning ... but after scouring the site I found nothing on that particular subject. Of course he replys back that he must have the reference number. 

Later on XX/XX/XXXX I contacted MoneyGram through their website page " general questions or feedback ''. I gave them the same lengthy story and asked them to confirm that the status " complete '' means that the money had indeed been picked up by someone. Their response was not immediate so the next day ( I think ) I called them by phone and told my story again to a person who created a case # XXXX. They confirmed that the money was taken and were able to tell me that the birth date on the ID of the person that picked up the money was different from my daughter. They also said, if I was interested in requesting criminal complaint, I could contact XXXX. I did that and received an autoreply on XX/XX/XXXX that they received my request. The next day I received another response that the email address I was given was for communication with law enforcement only. They had given me an incorrect email address. I gave up because I didn't think they could find the faux " XXXX '' anyway. 

A few days later, still bothered about the lack adequate visibility of the warning " don't share the reference number '', I try logging into MoneyGram to make a complaint about it on their website. I can't login. I call them and spoke to a person who, after looking at my file, says something like, " we suggest you find another service ''. I suppose somehow they think I'm scamming them. I confirmed with them that my daughter can still pick up the second transaction even though I no longer have an account. They confirmed that I could. That was my last contact with either party.