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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

#51

Post by Aspos »

Schiendelman wrote: post #45
Aspos wrote: post #29

There is a reason why such kinds of fraud are practically nonexistent in some other countries but are prevalent in the US. Alas, nearly every problem in the US stems from politics. A problem which could have been solved easily will keep being a problem for another decade. Regulators could have solved the problem at its root and make the scams impossible, but no, they would rather shoot the messenger and force money t…

It’s not the regulators themselves, it’s the politicians stopping the professionals from doing their jobs.

Regulators are hired by and largely follow directions set by politicians, so ultimately it is the fault of politicians in any case.

I trust they finally will do the right thing. After having tried everything else of course.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#52

Post by xsmasher »

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.

You'd be surprised how targeted these scams can be.

A friend's mother got an email from her synagogue, with the rabbi's name and everything, asking her to buy some gift cards to surprise some other (named) officials.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#53

Post by vaidhy »

hondo77 wrote: post #19
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?

Should everything be driven down to partisan politics? There are tons of reasons why Walmart would not want its employees to be judge and jury in identifying fraud and some of the others would have felt that is the right approach.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#54

Post by cornstalks »

thfuran wrote: post #50
thereare5lights wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This concern > opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. does not explain this policy > “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” If there is suspicion of fraud and yet still direct your employees complete the transaction, sure, maybe you're not literally in favor of fraud. But it does mean that you don't care if there's fraud. There's little daylight between not cari…

This concern > opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. does not explain this policy > “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” Sure it does. It's not Walmart's job to investigate fraud or any other crime. Their cashier's aren't trained in jurisprudence. And, frankly, a corporate policy of "deny service to customers who you suspect might be up to no good" is just a…

There are many ways to handle suspected fraud. One completely reasonable approach would be to talk to customers about scams if fraud is suspected. You can still leave it up to the customer to decide to go through with the transaction.

Other approaches exist too. But doing absolutely nothing and quietly proceeding with the transaction is just hostile to your most vulnerable customers.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#55

Post by mistrial9 »

xsmasher wrote: post #52
bombcar wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You'd be surprised how targeted these scams can be. A friend's mother got an email from her synagogue, with the rabbi's name and everything, asking her to buy some gift cards to surprise some other (named) officials.

except that the scammer was another attendee with a drug problem? before you yell at me, this actually happened to me, contacted via a trusted, long-term social club, and one of the wives (unknown to me) apparently had a full-on painkiller addiction and when it is time, they do anything.. even as far as using the phone list from the trusted social group to arrange for (thinly disguised) payment card purchases "now"

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#56

Post by [deleted] »

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!

[deleted]

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#57

Post by Spooky23 »

thfuran wrote: post #50
thereare5lights wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This concern > opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. does not explain this policy > “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” If there is suspicion of fraud and yet still direct your employees complete the transaction, sure, maybe you're not literally in favor of fraud. But it does mean that you don't care if there's fraud. There's little daylight between not cari…

This concern > opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. does not explain this policy > “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” Sure it does. It's not Walmart's job to investigate fraud or any other crime. Their cashier's aren't trained in jurisprudence. And, frankly, a corporate policy of "deny service to customers who you suspect might be up to no good" is just a…

Funny, when Walmart’s money is involved, they have no problem having untrained staff harass, profile and intimidate customers suspected of not following store policy.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#58

Post by CivBase »

thereare5lights wrote: post #38
rmatt2000 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are philosophically opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. That doesn't mean they are in favor of fraud.

This concern > opposed to turning private companies into arms of federal law enforcement agencies. does not explain this policy > “If you suspect fraud, complete the transaction.” If there is suspicion of fraud and yet still direct your employees complete the transaction, sure, maybe you're not literally in favor of fraud. But it does mean that you don't care if there's fraud. There's little daylight between not cari…

Most retailers also tell their employees to let theifs get away rather than physically confront them. Doesn't mean they "don't care if there's" theft. Of course they care! They just want the relevant authorities to deal with it instead of putting their employees in potentially dangerous situations.

The article doesn't say whether the policy instructed employees to report the suspected fraud afterwards.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#59

Post by duskwuff »

paulpauper wrote: post #42

why hasn't the FTC done this with YouTube and crypto livestream scams. Most of the victims are Coinbase users (addresses that start with bc1) and thus Americans. YouTube profits from these scam videos while people lose millions.

Because crypto livestream scammers aren't a US corporation. They may not even be a single entity.

Re: FTC Sues Walmart for Facilitating Money Transfer Fraud

#60

Post by r0m4n0 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #18

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 val…

I’ve used green dot cards on a few occasions just to give it some legitimacy. 1) got it as a spot bonus at work 2) buy them with cash to then purchase a vpn service that I use. I won’t go into other precautions I take to remain anonymous online but it’s a start haha
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