Do i trust westernunion money transfer e mail saying i am being sent a large amount of money if i pay the fee?

western union (supposidly)also contacted us on yahoo messenger is is really adamate about us sending the transfer fee immediatly,when i told him our representative wouldnt recommend us doing that to an individual,he recomended us sending it to money gram(?). they really are using WU logo's though.What do I do?|||I think this is an attempt of "Advance fee fraud" or "Nigerian Check Fraud" which is also known as "419 fraud".





Ask yourself these questions:


1. Do you deserve to get this money. i.e. do you earn it. (is this money for a payment of your item or service. even if it is yes you still have to be careful and verify before you give them any money or refund)


2. If you are on their side, will you do the same thing (give money away for a small fee)


3. Why would they want to give you free money?


4. Does it sound to good to be true?





Please read the detail here


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/419_fraud





Another examples (website explaining this fraud):


http://www.scambusters.org/NigerianFee.h鈥?/a>


Nigeria Email Scams - Nigerian Advance Fee 419 Fraud advanced fee


http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crim鈥?/a>


For example, they may give you a check for $85000 and ask you to send them just $4000





And a good rule of thumb:


If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.





But if the fee (the money they asked) is small enough, and you want to gamble and possibly learn the hard way then I would say go ahead and try it. worst case is that you will remember this experience and won't fall to another trick like this again. Just make sure you don't give these people any of your personal/financial information.





IMHO however, it has the word F R A U D written all over it..|||No. How would Western Union get your Yahoo messenger address?!?!?!?!? This is a friend playing a prank, or some kind of scam.|||Don't you dare! Western Union doesn't charge for RECIEVING funds, only to send them.


And let western union know of this scam.|||NO%26lt;NO%26lt;NO!!! Don't do it. Have you asked to be in their sweepstakes or?? If not, it is a scam for them to ask for a fee. Our E-mail is flooded with Scams. Report them to Yahoo security as scam.


Spartawo...|||Boy , those scam sharks really know how to find folks !





Who do you know that is sending you all that $$$ ?


Did your rich uncle call to say he's sending it ?


If he was , he would pay the fee . . . NOT the receiver .





Got to give those sharks credit !





%26gt;|||Rick B is correct, WU will not ever do that.|||It is a scam anyone offering money that asks for a fee, your bank or credit card details or takes you to a site to enter usernames or passwords is 99%scam stuff if in doubt ring the company from a number in you local phone book not off the email or message. cheers|||No no it is most likely a scam! These are usually a big scam, I do not believe they would contact you via your messenger. Are you doing business with them? Do you know someone who is doing business with them? Do not click on any links they might provide. Go instead to their website and send them an email and ask them if they had contacted you concerning a money transfer. If it is to good to be true then it usually is not true. Again, be very careful of scams and phishing attempts! Good luck :)|||How did they get your email address? Does the whole thing sound too good to be true?





It's a scam. Stop opening unsolicited email from unkown persons. You will never find anything of any value in the spam. Either they're trying to trick you out of money or get your personal info. Some just have virus to infect your computer.|||Do like I did. Tell them to deduct the fee from your prize money and to send you a cashiers check for the rest. It's a scam.|||This is most likely a scam.





People who want to defraud you will use the names of organizations and persons whom they think you trust.





* The President of the United States of America is setting up a Citizen's Advisory Board %26amp; your name has been drawn from a lottery based on listings in the phone book ... your participation is desired ... you just have to pay this small registration fee.


* Microsoft is using e-mail forwarding to get a directory of 10 million names %26amp; you are a record # on that list, so you will be awarded a huge sum of money, buy you have to pay a small registration fee


* Someone wants to buy something of yours %26amp; here is this huge check, but you have to apy a small finder's fee





It is all a scam. The purpose of which is you pay small sum of money out of your bank account, from which they weill know your bank account, and do other transactions that will clean it out ... if there's any money to you, the bank will find out that is fraudulent ... it gets partially deposited, then withdrawn %26amp; you get fined various charges for defrauding the bank.





This kind of scam can be sent to www.knujon.com after you register there, so that the proper authorities can be informed, such as the Secret Service, but personally, I seriously doubt the authorities are interested ... when there are thousands of e-pick-pockets crooks out there with millions of people like you who fall for the exact same e-scam.





Alternatively if you want to play this stupid game, at least open a separate bank account to receive the play money, so the separate bank account gets frozen and not your whole world.