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Walmart agreed to the payout in a settlement, the Federal Trade Commission announced on Friday, June 20. The agency's three commissioners unanimously approved the final order.
The FTC accused the retail giant of allowing fraudsters to misuse its wire transfer services between 2013 and 2018.
"Electronic money transfers are one of the most common ways that scammers tell consumers to send them money, because once it's sent, it's gone for good," said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC's consumer protection. "Companies that provide these services must train their employees to comply with the law and work to protect consumers."
The complaint said Walmart, while acting as an agent for MoneyGram, Western Union, and Ria, failed to enforce basic anti-fraud measures. The company was also accused of not training employees properly and didn’t warn customers about wire transfer scams.
The FTC first filed suit in 2022 and expanded the case in 2023 to include telemarketing violations, but a federal judge twice dismissed those specific claims in July 2024. The case took another turn in November 2024 when Walmart won permission from a federal appeals court to challenge the earlier rulings.
The agency secured a final order that requires Walmart to do more to detect and prevent fraudulent wire transfers. The settlement also bans the company from paying out money it knows or purposely ignores is tied to a scam.
Under the agreement, Walmart is also prohibited from helping telemarketers who ask people to send cash-to-cash transfers for goods, services, donations, loans, or credit.
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