Settlement Money Available From MoneyGram Services

Wednesday, July 14th, 2021 -- 11:01 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) People who lost money to scammers by paying through MoneyGram services can get some of that money back through a federal settlement.

People who lost money to scammers by paying through MoneyGram services can get some of that money back through a federal settlement. The settlement comes after MoneyGram failed to protect people from handing over money through their services.

State consumer protection administrator Lara Sutherlin says the case dates back several years. "This has been a long time coming and it actually goes back to when I was litigating at the Department of Justice."

Sutherlin says MoneyGram failed to protect people who were obviously being scammed from transferring their money. "They did settle and they did change their practices, and we did get 125 million dollars going back to consumers. That's how much money is eligible in this restitution program."

Sutherlin says the MoneyGram case was important in cutting off one method that people could have their money taken away. "The scammers are not going to go away, so oftentimes regulators are looking at the mechanisms by which they scam us and one way was wire fraud. And so now that's really not available to them because the regulators talked to the industry and said 'look, you got to tighten up your protocols' and that's what's happened."

People who lost money through MoneyGram wire transfers between 2013 and 2017 have until the end of August to claim their part of the settlement. You can find out more online at MoneyGram Remission dot com.

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