Western Union joins IACC payment-blocking scheme

The International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) has strengthened its Payment Processor Portal Program by signing up Western Union.

IACC began the scheme in January 2012 and enlisted the support of the major credit card firms and Paypal. In its first year the program terminated 906 individual merchant accounts, but saw a shift in the activity of online counterfeiters, such as offering a discount for using Western Union.

Encouraging buyers to use Western Union helped counterfeiters bypass the security measures. In the first year, more than 40 per cent of all reports of counterfeit sales submitted to the scheme used Western Union for payment.

Now, when IACC has verified reports a merchant of counterfeit goods is using Western Union to process payments it will send an alert. Western Union can then take action against the merchant to stop the activity.

The addition of Western Union to the scheme comes six months after MoneyGram signed up. In its review of the first year, IACC named both organisations next to JCB and Moneybookers on its list of firms that were yet to join the project. JCB accounted for 30 per cent of claims in the first year.