How to Avoid Potential Risks When Transferring Money Overseas

There’s nothing a good scammer likes better than wire transfers, which automatically translates into an increased element of risk when you’re trying to transfer your money overseas to your family. It’s a quandary – after all, you need to send that money, but it could be potentially dangerous to do so. Fortunately, there are quite a few ways you can protect yourself from becoming a wire fraud victim, and so safely reap the speed benefits of wiring money.

However, the first step to avoiding risks is to always use renowned foreign exchange businesses.

Never send you money to people you don’t know or haven’t met in person

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You know that you can’t recover your money after you wire it. That’s an inbuilt feature of the service that inherently leads to risk. Reduce this risk by never sending any money to people you don’t know or haven’t met. If someone asks you to wire money in order to replace a check you wrote them, refuse outright. After all, they could still have that check, and then withdraw additional money on top of what you sent them. Be wary of suspicious requests and scams since these could easily lead to wire transfer fraud.

Speaking of scams

Someone asking you to wire them money should be immediate grounds for suspicion. Scammers can be quite inventive, and may come up with plausible sounding stories in order to separate you from your hard earned money. If someone overseas asks you to invest in their business or to help them get over their financial troubles, this should raise a red flag.

Unauthorized Transfer

Malware and viruses like Trojans can give unscrupulous people access to your account, which they can then use to conduct a wire transfer. What’s more, the culprit could be based anywhere in the world. That’s why you should take care to regularly update your computer, and to maintain its antivirus software. You should also take the precaution of avoiding logins from public computers. It’s best to use renowned foreign exchange businesses to avoid risks, since these can offer services that track your online behaviour and spending patterns, and can therefore detect any suspicious activity.

Money Laundering

Using wire transfers to send money abroad has now become associated with laundering money, as well as with funding terrorists. While governments have enacted laws in order to protect the nation and individuals from such extreme risks, you should remain vigilant yourself. This is another reason you should never send money to organizations or individuals you don’t know or haven’t met. The bank will be aware of who is sending and receiving the money.

Use a renowned foreign exchange business

Research the foreign exchange business you use to transfer your money abroad. You should be aware of the security measures they have in place. If you’ve been scammed by a thief, report it by first calling the foreign exchange business and asking to have the transfer reversed. Then file a complaint with the FTC. Be prompt about this, since it’s possible that you be held liable for fraudulent wire transfers.

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