MoneyGram Settlement: $115.8 Million Refunded to Scam Victims

Who qualifies

• People who used MoneyGram to send money to a scammer between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2017, and who filed a remission claim before the August 31, 2021 deadline.
• The fraud had to be the reason for the transfer — for example a fake prize or lottery win, an online purchase that never arrived, a phony job offer, or a caller impersonating a relative in trouble.
• Documentation of the transfer was needed. Some victims received prefilled claim forms because law enforcement had already identified their transactions; everyone else had to file at the remission website.
• Approved claimants recovered the full amount they paid to scammers, which is why the average payment was unusually large compared with most class action settlements.
• Transfers outside the 2013–2017 window were not covered by this program, even if the scam was identical. Earlier conduct was addressed by the 2009 FTC order and the 2012 deferred prosecution agreement.
• People who wired money through Western Union rather than MoneyGram fall under a separate and much larger federal remission program with its own eligibility rules and deadlines.

The MoneyGram refund program — what happened

1. 1

   2009 — the first FTC order

   MoneyGram settled with the FTC and agreed to put a fraud-prevention program in place, including promptly investigating, restricting, suspending, and terminating agents with high fraud rates. This order is what MoneyGram was later charged with violating.

2. 2

   2012 — a $100 million forfeiture and a deferred prosecution agreement

   The Justice Department charged that MoneyGram's system had been used for advance-fee and mass-marketing fraud that caused tens of thousands of people to lose money. MoneyGram forfeited $100 million and entered a deferred prosecution agreement in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, case number 1:12-cr-00291. The Justice Department returned those funds to victims through its asset recovery program.

3. 3

   November 2018 — another $125 million

   The FTC and Justice Department charged that MoneyGram had continued to ignore suspicious payment activity by its agents, violating the 2009 FTC order and breaching the 2012 agreement. MoneyGram agreed to forfeit $125 million, extend the deferred prosecution agreement, and take on additional compliance obligations. The $125 million represented the volume of consumer fraud transactions processed during the agreement's term.

4. 4

   June 1 to August 31, 2021 — the claims window

   The claims process opened on June 1, 2021. Victims who had not received a prefilled form could file online. The deadline was August 31, 2021, and it was not extended. MoneyGram completed its deferred prosecution agreement in May 2021.

5. 5

   February 2023 — victims were paid in full

   The administrator distributed $115.8 million to 38,889 people who had filed valid claims. The Justice Department stated that each victim was being fully compensated for their losses. The distribution was announced jointly by the Justice Department's Criminal Division, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and the FTC.

6. 6

   If you filed a claim but no payment arrived

   Contact the Justice Department's MoneyGram Remission Administrator at 1-844-269-2630 or info@moneygramremission.com. Do not rely on the old moneygramremission.com website — as of July 2026 that domain no longer hosts the program and serves unrelated content. The FTC and Justice Department pages remain the authoritative record.

7. 7

   Wire transfers are still the hardest money to get back

   This program was unusual: most wire-fraud victims never recover anything, because a completed money transfer is effectively cash. It took two federal enforcement actions across nine years to return this money. ClaimBee tracks settlements and federal refund programs as they open, so a claim window like this one does not close before you hear about it.

Frequently asked questions