Western Union Deposit

just be careful. i tried to do this today.  i've used western union and 5 dimes in the past, but the last time i had to deposit was last fall.  and i had been away for 5 dimes since mid basketball season.

when i tried to make a deposit today, i contacted 5dimes as usual via web chat. 5dimes gives you the city, country and name of the person and tells you to make the payout in us dollars, which is a key thing for their end (5dimes).  the city this time was costa rica.  they used to use lima, peru but i guess during my time away that changed.

problem 1 - while at western union location, my currency exchange, when i get receipt back it wasn't going to be in us dollars. i raised this flag and they said it was nothing they could do. they said they typed in costa rica, and it comes automatically back in pesos or whatever and they said they don't have options to make payout in us dollars.  i'm thinking this could be trouble, but i just get the process for refunding transaction and keep going.

problem 2 -  i call 5dimes an hour later, no money. they tell me to call western union.

problem 3 - western union seems vague about what's going on, until they transfer me to what i then find is the fraud department. they call me back to ask a bunch of questions (i think there is another post about this kind of questioning from western union). since this had never happened after about 5 previous western union deposits, i didn't realize this was even possible and i was not prepared like i could have been had i known.  they asked:

- do you know person personally?

- why are you sending money?

- what will money be used for?

they said they were asking these questions to protect me from fraud. i think that, probably from the online poker blow up, that western union is on to this method of funding gambling sites set up outside of the united states.  since no one will incriminate themselves and tell western union the money is for gambling or poker, western union says "we're trying to protect you from fraud"

sorry for the long post. bottom line, be careful using western union to fund this stuff.  when trying to make my deposit, they took my license number, ss#, so i'm sure i'm in their system somewhere to flag if i try to send money internationally again.