Don’t send strangers money under your name, expats told
Armenian’s money transfer to ill mother rejected after sending money to a friend’s friend
Helping out a stranger by sending him/her money under your name could lock you out from transacting and get you into unnecessary inconvenience.
This is exactly what a Dubai expat had to go through after transferring money to her friend’s friend as a favour, unaware of the hassle that would later follow.
Armenian expat Donara Sanamyan headed to an international exchange branch one morning to complete a regular money transfer to her mother in Armenia through money transfer company MoneyGram, only to be told that her transfer had been rejected by the system.
She was asked to try again after a few days, but her transaction was declined again. It later appeared to be protecting her from a suspected fraud.
“I have been using MoneyGram for 15 years — ever since I started working in the UAE — to send money to my elderly, widowed mother living in Armenia. On May 23, when I tried sending her money, I was declined from transferring, with the money exchange staff telling me that an error code kept appearing,” Sanamyan, 36, told Gulf News. ■
Sanamyan said MoneyGram has been the only accessible service for her mother, who is ill and relies on the money she sends her to pay for her treatment. She added that she has never faced any issue with the service earlier until she once tried sending money to her friend’s friend, which had also been rejected.
“My friend, who was in Dubai for a visit, was trying to send her friend in Armenia money through the same service, but it was not going through. She asked me to do it for her under my name, and I did it as a favour,” said Sanamyan, who works as a marketing manager.
For one whole month, Sanamyan struggled to understand why she had been blocked from sending money back home and was worried about not being able to support her mother. “I tried contacting MoneyGram through their hotline several times but they did not tell me the exact reason, but I believe the woman I sent the money to was possibly involved in something.”
Following a query made by Gulf News, MoneyGram said they have restored Sanamyan’s account and that she would be able to transact with them again. Despite not giving details about the case in order to protect customer’s privacy, they warned customers against sending money to people they don’t personally know.
“At MoneyGram, protecting our customers from fraud is our top priority ... At times, a consumer may be blocked from transacting to protect him or her from suspected fraud,” MoneyGram said in a statement.
“... We also want to remind all consumers that the most important thing they can do to protect themselves when transferring money is to only send money to people they personally know,” it added.