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FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

ftc.gov

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Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#11

Post by iancarroll »

tehwebguy wrote: post #10
kryptn wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably none, given this complaint is focused on money services Walmart provides.

Walmart Money Center has been a pretty large component of "manufactured spending" which is not the same thing as churning but churning is often used as an umbrella term for all point earning hacks activities.

Yeah, it would be hard for churning/MS to exist without Walmart. You can buy Visa/MC gift cards with a credit card, turn them into money orders at Walmart (via running them as "debit"), and deposit those into most banks at a ~1% total loss.

These days, I think Walmart is not the easiest route to liquidate gift cards though. They used to allow some silly things like combining many gift cards to buy one money order, but are at least supposed to restrict it now.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#12

Post by pessimizer »

treeman79 wrote: post #4

Daughter nearly fell victim to one of these. An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her that the store manager was stealing money and that she needed to transfer it back to corporate. Thankfully I was giving her a ride that day. She was in a total panic but wouldn’t tell me what was going on. He had her convinced that if she said anything she was gonna go to jail. I thought they were having her do a night mo…

> An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her

An auditor, or a voice on a phone?

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#13

Post by granzymes »

For years, according to the complaint, it was Walmart’s stated policy for its employees to issue payouts even in the case of a suspicious money transfer, making it easy for scammers to retrieve fraud proceeds at a Walmart location. The complaint cites a Walmart reference guide for employees that stated: “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.”

Wow!

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#14

Post by krustyburger »

treeman79 wrote: post #4

Daughter nearly fell victim to one of these. An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her that the store manager was stealing money and that she needed to transfer it back to corporate. Thankfully I was giving her a ride that day. She was in a total panic but wouldn’t tell me what was going on. He had her convinced that if she said anything she was gonna go to jail. I thought they were having her do a night mo…

So she still took thousands in cash out the door with her? It sounds like she went right back to work and put it back, but if anyone found out she had taken that money off the property, I doubt she would keep her job. I would recommend not sharing this story with anyone else.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#15

Post by bombcar »

pessimizer wrote: post #12
treeman79 wrote: post #4

Daughter nearly fell victim to one of these. An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her that the store manager was stealing money and that she needed to transfer it back to corporate. Thankfully I was giving her a ride that day. She was in a total panic but wouldn’t tell me what was going on. He had her convinced that if she said anything she was gonna go to jail. I thought they were having her do a night mo…

> An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her An auditor, or a voice on a phone?

Hi it’s me your irs tax audioter accounter cto manager I need you to buy many Amex gift cards and send me the codes so I can surprise the Ukrainians with them.

Sincerely, totally honest guy.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#16

Post by rafale »

iancarroll wrote: post #11
tehwebguy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walmart Money Center has been a pretty large component of "manufactured spending" which is not the same thing as churning but churning is often used as an umbrella term for all point earning hacks activities.

Yeah, it would be hard for churning/MS to exist without Walmart. You can buy Visa/MC gift cards with a credit card, turn them into money orders at Walmart (via running them as "debit"), and deposit those into most banks at a ~1% total loss. These days, I think Walmart is not the easiest route to liquidate gift cards though. They used to allow some silly things like combining many gift cards to buy one money order, bu…

Is manufactured spending legal? It sounds like abusing an electronic and wire system.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#17

Post by krustyburger »

pessimizer wrote: post #12
treeman79 wrote: post #4

Daughter nearly fell victim to one of these. An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her that the store manager was stealing money and that she needed to transfer it back to corporate. Thankfully I was giving her a ride that day. She was in a total panic but wouldn’t tell me what was going on. He had her convinced that if she said anything she was gonna go to jail. I thought they were having her do a night mo…

> An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her An auditor, or a voice on a phone?

Rather than italicizing, I think they meant to place auditor in quotes.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#18

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

Related to this, I do not understand how Green Dot is still in business. I worked for a fintech, and literally every single attempted transaction we got from a Green Dot card was fraud. We wrote special logic in the code that specifically required all Green Dot transactions to get a manual review - I can't remember if we switched this to just outright reject, because I'm not exaggerating when I say we never got a valid Green Dot transaction.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#19

Post by hondo77 »

granzymes wrote: post #13

For years, according to the complaint, it was Walmart’s stated policy for its employees to issue payouts even in the case of a suspicious money transfer, making it easy for scammers to retrieve fraud proceeds at a Walmart location. The complaint cites a Walmart reference guide for employees that stated: “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” Wow!

And yet two commissioners voted "no". Wanna guess who appointed them?

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#20

Post by Arrath »

bombcar wrote: post #15
pessimizer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An auditor over the course of 2 hours convinced her An auditor, or a voice on a phone?

Hi it’s me your irs tax audioter accounter cto manager I need you to buy many Amex gift cards and send me the codes so I can surprise the Ukrainians with them. Sincerely, totally honest guy.

Ah you must be the same auditor who sms'd me my new amazon account credentials a couple hours ago. Thanks for being so on the ball watching for fraudulent activity.
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