Expatriates from all around the world are familiar with sending money when living away from their loved ones. Remittances, commonly defined as money or funds sent back to relatives and friends in migrants' home countries, are frequently the most direct and well-known relationship between migration and development. But this transfer can sometimes prove to be frustrating and keep the sender on their toes. When expats are unaware of secure methods for transferring money, they would eventually become victims of scammers.

Secure Money Transfer -  What To Expect?

According to the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief, remittances to low- and middle-income countries will total $508 billion in 2020. A $605 billion investment followed this in 2021. They hit an all-time high of $548 billion in 2019 but subsequently fell because of the Covid epidemic.

In 2021, around 95,000 consumers reported $770 million in damages due to fraud launched on social media networks. These losses account for about 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021, representing an astounding eighteen-fold increase over reported losses in 2017. For scammers, there's a lot to admire about hacking and stealing money through the internet. It is a low-cost method of reaching billions of people worldwide. But what are the concerns expatriates face when making money transfers to their loved ones?

Red Flags Associated with Remittance Scam

The following are the red flags you should look out for as scammers use them often:

• You've been asked to send money.
• A cheque is mailed to you in response to a payment request. 
• Con artists sometimes gain their victims' trust by mailing a forged check for more than the purchase price or paying so-called processing fees, shipping costs, or other expenses. 
• A cashier's check, personal check, or money order may be used. 
• They direct the victim to cash the check or money order and transmit them a percentage of the proceeds. Learn more about check forgeries.
• Before your money may be withdrawn, the contact informs you that a confirmation code or money transfer control number (MTCN) is required. This is an outright untruth. Money can be picked up immediately after being wired.
• A phone call or email looks to be coming from outside the country. The email message might include several typos.
• The individual communicates through a TTY service. The hearing impaired utilises TTY. The service is used by cons because it masks thick accents and makes calls untraceable. Email is used for follow-up contact.

Remittance and Associated Risk

Financial intelligence agencies are concerned that remittances are one method for money to be laundered or violent actions like terrorism to be financed. The most frequent method of remittance is through a bank's electronic payment system or an electronic money transfer provider offering digital services to send money online across the globe. 

Transfers are typically safe and secure as long as you know who is receiving them. Individuals participating in a fund transfer process should be compelled to establish their identification if they use a genuine transfer provider, making anonymous transfers impossible.

Transfers may be flagged for a variety of reasons, alerting officials to probable misconduct on the part of either the recipient or the sender in the following cases:

• Transfers to safe-haven nations
• Account transfers to non-account holders
• Transfers regularly for no discernible cause
• Incoming and outgoing wires of the same monetary value
• Cash firms wire large sums

What Should You Monitor Before Choosing a Remittance Service?

It is critical to understand that both local and overseas transactions are subject to bank examination. All financial transactions above $10,000 must be reported to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) using a Currency Transaction Report (CTR). So, you should be looking out for CTR when making transactions or transfers.

Verify that the money supplied overseas is not being used to finance terrorist operations or for money laundering reasons. Furthermore, they are entrusted with stopping cash from flowing to nations sanctioned by the authorised government. So, it is not just your concerning remittance company to make sure that your global money transfer has securely reached the receiver, but you should also be involved in the pre-process of choosing a good company.

What’s The Most Secure Remittance Company?

The safest approach to sending money abroad is through a fund transfer conducted by a bank or online money transfer business. The sole risk of employing this kind of money transfer is transferring money to a fraudster posing as someone else. Sending money through the wire to only people or organisations you know and trust is thus the safest way to send money abroad.

When comparing alternative money transfer services or replacement solutions, keep the costs, transfer rates, and timeframe in mind. ACE Money Transfer is a service that will function flawlessly for you and aid you in safely shifting your money from the sender to the receiver.