Sending Money To Zambia

[Dee Sa]

my son is in Zambia and he wants me to send him 300 pounds in US dollars, via Western Union only.
Do I take sterling to the Western Union agent and let them convert [ and obviously make a profit] or can I purchase the dollars first and take them to the agent for a straight transfer.

Help appreciated, he doesn't want me to send sterling.

[sandyRoe]

Are you absolutely sure this request is from him?

[Buenchico]

As Western Union agents are usually convenience stores, secondhand goods shops or similar, I doubt that they've got any mechanism for accepting anything other than sterling. (Whatever you hand over will have to be paid into their bank account). So I suspect that your plan to exchange the money to US dollars first will be a non-starter.

Anyway, I can't see why you'd need to go to a Western Union agent anyway. You can carry out the transaction online:
https://www.westernunion.com/gb/en/home.html

Western Union's expensive though. PayPal is cheaper:
https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/send-money-online

[Guilbert53]

sandyRoe is right that you should be careful.

It is a well known scam that scammers send out emails from people pretending that they are in trouble abroad and need money for hospital treatment or whatever.

Only send this money if you are totally sure it is from him.

My daughter is on a year long round the world trip with her boyfriend and we set up a code word before she went so we could always ask for the code word if there was any doubt the email was from her.

[Guilbert53]

Here are some of the common Western Union scams

https://www.westernunion.com/gb/en/fraudawareness/fraud-types.html

[Canary42]

If he doesn't want Sterling, why has he expressed his requirement in such currency ?

Very suspicious IMHO.

[EDDIE51]

You can't purchase the Dollars first. You go to Western Union and tell them how much you want to send and who to. They then work out the cost in sterling and you pay them from your bank account, or cash in £.
I lived in Zambia as a full resident for 3 years. $ are more popular than sterling.

[Dee Sa]

yes its him alright, he has been out there 14 years and his business has now taken a turn for the worst, & being his mum I thought the money would come in handy for xmas ! yes I have been out there twice and W/Union is the easiest way apart from bank transfer and I don't know his details.
When you send in sterling the exchange rate to dollars isn't good because they all deal in dollars rather than kwachas, no one wants sterling.
Thank you everyone for your help & advance, much appreciated.