Protection from Fraud

To maintain this earned trust, OMT constantly increases its efforts to protect customers, by holding agents training sessions, and sending regular memos highlighting the risks of fraud, in addition to other measures undertaken by the AML Compliance Unit.

OMT also works on raising awareness among its customers about the possible fraud scenarios they could be exposed to.

In this framework, OMT would like to draw the attention of customers to the following:

1- Fraud usually happens through social media platforms and other digital applications and websites;

2- Scammers earn the trust of their victims before stealing their money;

3- Scammers ask for financial assistance for reasons such as financial legacy, lottery prize, commerce, immigration, etc.

Some examples of fraud include:

Mystery Shopping:

Mystery shopping scams are popular, especially when the scammer convinces the victim that he/she will receive a commodity or product such as a jewellery box in order to evaluate it. The scammer asks the victim to pay the shipping and delivery fees in exchange of keeping the commodity or product. The victim wires the money only to find out later that he/she will not receive anything in return.

Employment:

Employment scams generally start with a too-good-to-be-true offer “work from home and earn thousands of dollars a month, no experience needed” and end with victims out of a ‘job’ and out of money.

a) The scammer poses as a new ‘employer’ and asks the victim to cover up-front expenses, like supplies. The victim buys the necessary supplies, and weeks later finds out that he/she will not get the money back.

b) The scammer poses as a ‘recruiter’ pitching offers of guaranteed employment or as an ‘employer’ extending job offers on the condition that the victim pays up front for things like application or recruitment fees. The victim pays, but the job offer never materializes.

Lottery/Prize:

Lottery or prize scams follow the below pattern:

A victim receives an unsolicited phone call, email or letter from someone claiming to be a prince or princess, or to work for a government agency or represent a well-known organization or celebrity, notifying the victim that he/she has won a lot of money or a prize. The scammer gains the victim’s trust and explains that, in order to collect the winnings, he/she has to send a small sum of money to pay for processing fees or taxes. The victim immediately wires the money, but never gets the “winnings” nor refunds the money paid for “fees and taxes.”

You can check out additional examples on Western Union’s website: https://www.westernunion.com/lb/en/fraud-awareness.html