Keep safe when sending money abroad!

As somebody from abroad living and working in the United Kingdom, you may send remittances (money transfers) back home. These payments could be for your family to buy essentials or to maintain their standard of living, to pay for accommodation or education, or to help with businesses. It could also be to help deal with natural disasters or for unexpected emergencies. Remittances can make a substantial contribution to the economy of your country. Equally, this advice applies to transferring money from this country back to the country where a family member is working or studying. The necessity of this money getting to the recipient – together with the fact that you have worked hard to earn it – makes it particularly important that you transfer the money in the safest possible way. This ensures it reaches your family instead of a fraudster. You should also be paying as little as possible in transfer fees – and benefiting from the most favourable exchange rates – so that those back home receive as much as possible.

What to avoid:

• Paying unnecessarily high fees or exchange rates or remittances.
• Potential poor availability/reliability of agents where your family lives, to deliver the money you have transferred.
• Fraud:
  • Being tricked via email, text, DM (direct message), social media post or in person, by a fraudster posing as a money remitter.
  • Inadvertently allowing a scammer to gain access to your bank account or online remittance service, in order to steal your funds by withdrawing money or making payments you have not authorised.
• Being deceived into participating in criminal activity (such as money laundering).

Visit the link for helpful tips and advice – Safe Remittances – Get Safe Online