Sharing travel plans through social networks encourages family scams

Fri, Jun 7, 2013: “Family scams” or “relative in need scam” is a criminal act typically targets elderly family and friends of individuals traveling on vacation, alerting them of an “emergency situation” and asking for immediate financial aid, sent through a money transfer to help solve a crisis.

The global money transfer company Moneygram has urged the public not to share their travel plans which can be served as an invitation for family scams. According to a recent survey by MoneyGram, nearly one-third of consumers aged 18-49 post details about their vacations on social media before or during their trip and also found victims of family scams lost an average of US$1,551 (RM4,769.32) each time money was sent to a scammer. There were more than US$8.5 million (RM26.1 million) attempted transactions on family scam during summer 2012.