Felt so sad for lady @ supermarket with her latest African money transfer.

[BlueStocking007]

I popped in for a few bits and purchased them at the kiosk, I'm a regular and politely chit chat generally & vice versa.

Lady around 55-60, very well spoken, but did seem slightly tipsy was begging the two other serving staff ( a manager was called) because the lady was wanting to send thousands of pounds to Africa via money transfer. The staff were doing their utmost, to advise that it was very likely this money would be lost, that the gentleman's name had a slight variation ( from the last records) and she had now done this three times. The lady was pleading for them to complete the transaction, the staff did, but said it was the last time

Aibu, to say the staff should have refused.
I totally accept capacity/adult/her decision BUT surely NOBODY who was not vulnerable, lonely ( especially at this time of year) would be sending thousands of pounds to a man in Africa. The supermarket should have carte blanch,with sense and conviction to not do this.
They were clearly & verbally concerned.

I understand your concern, OP, however it sounds like the staff tried hard to check that this lady was aware that this could be a scam, and the potential consequences of her actions. As others have stated, she has the right to make an unwise decision, and this does appear to be a hugely unwise decision.

I have known a couple of women who have been in a similar situation - both successful, intelligent women who believed everything they were told by the scammers, and handed lots of money over to them. They chose to ignore all the advice from friends and family, who all knew that they were being scammed. It's heartbreaking to see happen, but ultimately people make their own decisions and have to suffer the consequences.

I do get your point that perhaps the staff should have refused, however I suspect that she just would have gone to another shop where she wasn't known and made the transaction anyway.

This does seem to have deeply affected you, OP (and it is incredibly sad and frustrating to witness) so perhaps you could look at ways of raising awareness of such scams locally - there are lots of well publicised cases that you could use, and with social media you can help spread the word very easily.

She appeared to have capacity.Maybe we should look at updating protections around money transfers now that scammers are so prevalent, but not really sure it could work.

In my workplace I do western union/ money gram transfers daily.
There’s an option for staff to report fraud and abuse confidentially to the company and then they investigate it and can stop the money going through. The staff might have done this but your not allowed to tell anyone or the customer that you have done it.

Thanks for most of your comments & input

I will have a further chat with staff ( I do know some more than others ) and just do a little more research about it...

Happy New Year Everyone

I don’t get the story. Why were they being funny about sending money? I’ve never even been asked by my bank about any transaction in the thousands

Suspected fraud - any decent bank would challenge a Transaction they suspect to be fraudulent !

You sound a bit unhinged OP

🙄

Are people fairynick londonscalling not reading the thread properly? Or are they just so woke that mentioning Africa is just too much? We all know the scenario/scam being described here. I have sent money to certain African countries plenty of times but I always got the name right.

@Aridane

"any decent bank would challenge a transaction they suspect to be fraudulent"

Agreed, but the OP's incident didn’t take place in a bank. Her early posts suggest it was in a "local shop".

(my comment was in response to a poster saying a bank wouldn’t challenge such a transaction)

@Aridane

Ah, understood.

I’m concerned that a lot of people don’t appreciate they were shop staff, not bank tellers who would be more fully trained in how to handle such a situation.

It’s perfectly reasonable for the the OP to feel sad for the lady, assuming she’s being scammed.

But it’s unreasonable to expect the shop staff to stick their necks out and refuse this transaction, because doing so could cost them their jobs, their livelihoods, and wind them up in court.