I was going to rent an apartment off craigslist. Person was out of state, wanted to be sure we were "serious" before he would fly in to show us the apt. He asked us to send the money to ourself as a moneygram. I asked the person at the place I sent the moneygram from if it was safe & was told yes as long as I dont tell him the password....WRONG!! we found out that a girl claimed the money( saying she was my daughter) in NY.We are in CA Moneygram said I had to get a judgement against the store that gave her the $ before they could investigate!!. What can I do?
Already Tried: called moneygram
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Can you please tell me how someone was able to obtain money that you send to yourself from moneygram?Did moneygram let you know the name of the person who received the money?What was the purpose for you to send money to your own name?Have you filed a police report yet?
yes we filed a police report. The purpose was to make sure we had the money for the deposit because the landlord was supposedly flying in from out of state.Moneygram said the person who received the money was the one named as the recipient! As far as how she was able to obtain the money it was assumed that the store or employee was involved with the person I was dealing with. The manager of the store I sent it from even called Moneygram and told them what happened & that they needed to investigated that store in NY
Thank you for your follow up.What was the amount of money and did you also report this to your local FBI office and also to the police department in which jurisdiction the money were fraudulently retrieved?
The amount was $800.00. I did report report it to the FBI but not to the police dept in NY.
Thank you for your follow up.Have you contacted the corporate headquarters of MoneyGram in writing regarding this issue/claim?
No I havent. Do you think it will help.?Is there a statue of limitations on this kind of thing?
Thank you for your follow up.I would suggest that you do send a written claim/demand letter to the moneygram corporate headquarters by certified mail and describe in detail what took place, but most importantly that someone fraudulently was able to obtain the money that were sent to your name and without a password.Here is the link to the official MoneyGram website and the contact information for their corporate office:http://www.moneygram.com/MGICorp/MediaRelations/OurCompany/CompanyFacts/index.htmGiven the small amount of money in question, it is likely that the company will investigate the matter and will offer some type of resolution to you and if they don't you can file a small claims lawsuit against this compaby and the statute of limitations is 4 years in California for this type of claim.I am very sorry about what happened to you and please always be careful when dealing with strangers, especially with the ones from craiglist or internet.
Thank you so much Alex! I had given up on ever getting this $ back. At least I feel like there is a chance! If I do have to file a small claims suit what happens if its ruled in my favor?I just wish there was some way to catch the people who did this!
Thank you for your follow up.If you prevail in your small claims lawsuit, you would have a judgment against MoneyGram and will be able to collect the amount owed from this company.Also, you might want to mail copies of all the reports regarding this crime to the corporate office for their review as well.
Do you mean when I write the initial letter to the corporate office?
That is correct.I would suggest that you do include all the facts and the copies of the police reports with your initial letter to the corporate office.