The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday that it has sued Walmart for allegedly allowing its money transfer services to be used by scam artists who stole “hundreds of millions of dollars” from customers.
In its lawsuit, the agency alleged that for years, Walmart failed to properly secure the money transfer services offered at its stores. The agency said Walmart didn’t properly train its employees, failed to alert customers, and used procedures that allowed fraudsters to cash out at its stores. The FTC is asking the court to order Walmart to return money to consumers and to impose civil penalties on the company.
“While scammers used its money transfer services to make off with cash, Walmart looked the other way and pocketed millions in fees,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement announcing the action.
Walmart called the lawsuit “factually flawed and legally baseless.” It said that the chair of the FTC refused Walmart the due process of hearing directly from the company, and said the Justice Department had refused to take the case to court.
Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said that the agency is seeking to blame the company for fraud that the agency already attributed to another company, at a time that company was under the federal government’s direct supervision.
“Walmart will defend the company’s robust anti-fraud efforts that have helped protect countless consumers, all while Walmart has driven down prices and saved consumers an estimated $6 billion in money transfer fees,” it said.
In addition to its retail business, Walmart offers financial services to consumers in its stores, including money transfers, credit cards, reloadable debit cards and bill payments.
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The DOJ refused to pursue this for lack of fact. However, If Walmart is guilty they should pay for it. BUT $100s of billions was stolen from pandemic relief and Unemployment compensation. There are folks right now that cannot get help because scum stole their identity during the give aways to people who, in many cases, did not need it. The US government and congress are to busy ( if Trump is Guilty let’s have a fair impartial hearing hang him and get on with it) to investigate and punish those guilty. Why? Because they can just add it to the debt so our children, grand children, great grand children and great great grand children can all contribute 50%-90% of any income to pay for our greed and sloth.
“Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, said that the agency is seeking to blame the company for fraud that the agency already attributed to another company, at a time that company was under the federal government’s direct supervision.”
Regulation Nation Rule #1. (Learned from the Trial Lawyers) Always sue the deep pocket. There is no point going after those you cannot catch, meaning the foreign fraudsters. Iran and Russia do not allow extradition against their military computer geeks.