STEP 1 of 6

They use lots of tricks to gain peoples’ trust. Then they get people to send money through a money transfer service like ours and attempt to steal it.

Smart people fall for scams every day. Test your knowledge of money transfer fraud and learn how to protect yourself.

Share this quiz with friends and family

So they can protect themselves too.

heart to heartbreak
Two people meet online and email and talk on the phone for almost a year. After many heart-to-heart talks, they decide to meet in-person. One person mentions a recent expensive car repair bill and asks the other to use a money transfer service and send $200 to help pay for the airline ticket.
Of the choices below, select the one that's the best choice.
Send the $200They can’t wait to meet in-person
Send only $100It’s all they can spare
Offer to research flights and buy the ticket
To Be or Not to be... scammed
There are good reasons to use a money transfer service to send money but scammers are good actors and use these reasons to steal your money after gaining your trust.
For each of the scenarios below, decide whether it’s a scam or not a scam.
These could all be scams.

Sending money to a friend or family member in trouble without independently validating the situation with the person in trouble and/or other family members or friends

Sending money to pay the security deposit of a rental property without meeting the renter or seeing the property in-person

Sending money to my significant other who I met online and haven’t yet met in-person

A smooth getaway
Your aunt is on vacation abroad and emails you. Someone mugged her and stole her wallet. She urgently needs money to pay her hotel bill and for travel back home and asks you to send it using a money transfer service.
Of the choices below, select the one that's the best choice.
Email her back and ask for more details
Check out one of her social networking accounts and see all the great vacation photos and immediately get the money and research how to send it to her
Call her and other family members to confirm she’s in trouble
TRUST or BUST
Scammers can gain your trust by suggesting ways you can “protect” a transaction when you use a money transfer service.
For each of the scenarios below, use the slider to indicate whether you think it helps protect your funds or not, or if you’re not sure.
PROTECTS
NOT SURE
DOESN'T PROTECT
Send money with a test question
Send money and specify the pickup location
Send money to a friend or family member and later change the receiver name to the intended receiver
None of these can protect your funds.
The Inside job
Your friend makes decent money as a mystery shopper. You’re contacted for a similar position and get the job. Your first assignment: deposit a check from your employer and use a portion of the funds to send money using a money transfer service; then, evaluate the service.
Of the choices below, select the one that's the best choice.

After I deposit the check, I...

Complete my assignment immediately
Complete my assignment using the funds my bank makes immediately available
Complete my assignment after waiting a few weeks for my bank to say it cleared
Almost Done!
Please take a moment to answer just three quick questions, and then you’ll see your final results.
What’s your gender?
How old are you?
18 to 24
25 to 34
35 to 44
45 to 54
55 to 64
65 or older
Where do you live?
Select a State
You have successfully completed
the Western Union Fraud Quiz.

YOU ANSWERED

QUESTIONS CORRECTLY

Con artists use smart people like you, and good money transfer companies like Western Union, to steal money. You can spot the warning signs of a scam.

Visit our Consumer Protection Center and arm yourself with the knowledge to protect yourself and your friends and family. You’ll learn the things you should never do when using a money transfer service to send money; the tricks scammers use to gain your trust; how to follow our alerts to stay informed; and more.

Together, we can fight fraud.

SHARE YOUR RESULTS

The Best Answer:

Offer to research flights
and buy the ticket

If you offer to research flights and buy the ticket this means the scammer can’t steal the money and will likely show his or her true colors and bail on the relationship.

Online dating is nearly a billion dollar industry and fraudsters are cashing in on it by targeting people looking for love.

Before you send any money, make sure you really know this person and, most important, have met in-person.

This might be the Emergency Scam. Before you send any money, independently validate the situation with the person in trouble and/or other family members or friends— even if the person who contacts you asks you not to contact or tell anyone.
This might be a Rental Property Scam. Before you send any money, meet the person you’re dealing with in-person and visit the property you’re considering renting.
This might be a Relationship Scam. Before you send any money, make sure you really know this person and, most important, have met in-person.
The Best Answer:

Call her and other
family members to confirm
she’s in trouble

Fraudsters play on your emotions of wanting to help a friend or family member in need with the Emergency or Imposter Scam. A key to this scam is the fraudster’s ability to establish an extreme sense of urgency, but before you send any money, independently validate the situation—even if the person who contacts you asks you not to contact or tell anyone.

In 2011, consumers filed more than 73,000 imposter scam complaints according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network database.

In certain circumstances the answer to a test question may be used to pick up a transaction. The sender and receiver are the only people who know the question and the answer. Scammers sometimes tell victims to add test questions to transactions but it’s just a ploy to gain their trust; letting victims think it provides added protection when it actually doesn’t. Test questions are not an additional security feature and cannot be used to time or delay the payment of a transaction.
With limited exceptions, money sent to the U.S. can be picked up at any Agent location in the specified destination state. Money sent outside of the U.S. can generally be picked up at any Agent location in the specified destination country. Scammers sometimes tell victims to specify a pickup location when initiating a transaction, but then they pick up the money at a different location.
Rules and regulations vary by country but, in general, you can use government issued photo identification, such as a drivers’ license or passport, to pick up a Western Union Money Transfer transaction. Scammers sometimes tell victims to “protect” their transaction by using a relative’s name as the receiver, only to turn around and create a fake ID so they can pick up the money themselves.
The Best Answer:

After I deposit the check, I...

Complete my assignment
after waiting a few weeks
for my bank to say it cleared

In 2011, consumers filed more than 36,000 employment-related scam complaints according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network database.

In this scenario, scammers send victims fake checks and tell them to deposit them and use the funds to “evaluate” Western Union’s money transfer service. Victims send money using the service only to find out later that the checks bounce and they’re responsible for paying the bank back.

Remember: Never send money from a deposited check until it officially clears. Just because funds are available doesn’t mean a check has cleared—by law, banks must make deposited funds available within a few days but it can take weeks to uncover a fake check.

please select an answer.
They use lots of tricks to gain peoples’ trust. Then they get people to send money through a money transfer service like ours and attempt to steal it.
Smart people fall for scams every day. Test your knowledge of money transfer fraud and learn how to protect yourself.
Share this quiz with friends and family
So they can protect themselves too.
These could all be scams.
None of these can protect your funds.
PROTECTS
NOT SURE
DOESN'T PROTECT
Step
of
Almost Done!
Please take a moment to answer just three quick questions, and then you’ll see your final results.
What’s your gender?
Male
Female
How old are you?
to
or older
Where do you live?
Select a State
Outside the U.S.
You have successfully completed
the Western Union Fraud Quiz.
YOU ANSWERED
QUESTIONS CORRECTLY

Con artists use smart people like you, and good money transfer companies like Western Union, to steal money. You can spot the warning signs of a scam.

Visit our Consumer Protection Center and arm yourself with the knowledge to protect yourself and your friends and family. You’ll learn the things you should never do when using a money transfer service to send money; the tricks scammers use to gain your trust; how to follow our alerts to stay informed; and more.

Together, we can fight fraud.

SHARE YOUR RESULTS