Is it possible to return money that was stolen through Western Union?

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I feel so worthless and depressed

Don't. A successful scammer will make anything sound believable. You weren't the first person to get sucked in, and you won't be the last.

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The only place I'm aware that legally can take a few hundred dollars and turn it into thousands is an investment account. But that takes a lot of time, and if you want it quickly, involves risk.

You can report the transaction to Western Union, but please don't hold your breath.* These scammers generally know how to avoid being caught.

*I will say this - about 4 years ago, a friend of mine was scammed by a guy in New Jersey (we live in Texas) who claimed to work with baseballs players...he found her on a dating site...I don't remember all the specifics.
However, she reported it to Western Union, along with several other ladies who he scammed, and they were eventually able to track him down, and charge him with wire fraud, and he has to pay restitution to his victims.

Well Said.  I came back here for a well-being check on that poster.  Her post is an example of the human toll these scams take.

I've kept my eye on it for the same reason :)

Her post is also a great example as to why people don't report these crimes nearly as often as they should. Embarrassment keeps a lot of people from doing a lot of things.

The notion in the heading that someone could get their Western Union money back caught my attention. There have been a lot of people who lost a lot of money -- but didn't explain the scam or how it worked. I've read about an assortment of ways scammers get people to use Western Union, but thought I might find out about more. I had never heard of the car sales gimmick before. I knew people did things like that because Craigslist has prominent warnings against sending people money.

I stumbled across a Western Union scam on Facebook, recently. Someone claiming to be "Janet Beclund" replied to one of my posts and wanted to be friended. I didn't think much of it, then I started getting a chat request. That promptly turned weird. She said she's from Sebring, Florida but in Nigeria on business buying art and tapestry and such.

It's a conversation, right? I started asking her about Sebring and a "big sporting event" which happens there every year. She was clueless. For about 50 years, Sebring has hosted one of the world's most prestigious road racing/endurance racing events. You can live in Sebring, and not know that?

Well, long story short, there were more than a dozen profiles on Facebook; all called "Janet Becklund." I chatted with about half a dozen. Most were in Nigeria on business buying art. They all started calling me "Hon," "Dear," "Babe," and so on, almost from the very first contact. Sooner or later, they all wanted money for some reason. One lost her money, was stuck in a hotel, and was hungry. Another needed money because she was in her monthly cycle. Another got money from the embassy for a "round trip"  ticket so she could leave, but still needed money for some nagging detail (Round trip ticket to leave Nigeria and go home?)

I kept messing with them, to see how far, and where, they wanted to take their scam. Looked into actually sending them money. Maybe $5.00. WESTERN UNION DID NOT ALLOW ME TO SEND MONEY TO NIGERIA!!!!

I thought about sending money because they were asking for such piddling amounts; all wanted less than $100. Hey, people throw money away in Vegas. Invest ridiculous time and money in a pastime involving a hole-y cow pasture, pay astounding amounts of money for wine. Why not spend a little money playing with these twits?

The stories were ridiculous and hilarious. One claimed to be from Fort Smith, Arkansas. Blue Bell Ice Cream (Great stuff, if you live in the wrong part of the world and can't get it.) had just gone back into production after a contamination problem. Plant is in Oklahoma. I asked about the distance between Fort Smith and Oklahoma. The answer came back in hundreds of kilometers. As if there's a single resident of Fort Smith who would ever give a U.S. distance in kilometers.

And, as if Fort Smith were not smack dab butting up against the Oklahoma state line.

Well, it tears at me that so many people have lost so much money to so many scam artists over a  period of so many years. I wish there were a way for them to get their money back. More importantly, I wish there were a way to get their attention AHEAD OF TIME, and make them smart enough to stay away from Western Union, to begin with.

Facebook made all of those Janets go away. I wonder what name those guys in an Internet cafe in Lagos have picked up for their next victims. I really wish I knew what their end game had been.

I don't know if you post often or lurk here much, I don't recall your handle, but then it's a big site.  I every few days I read a post that just about breaks my heart, the human cost of scams like these is profoundly moving.  All kinds of sick tricks and slick traps out there hiding in the telephone lines and cyber world.  Thanks for posting about your experience.  Lurk some moar and you might find your talent and common sense has you cut out to be a scam buster.  Probably a good one!

So you know about the little race in Sebring?  I'm on your side, but you better be careful they can't hear you in Daytona :)  Oh, and THANKS for mentioning Blue Belle.  Now I am starting to jones really bad and it is about to start raining hard.

My heart goes out to the people who are willing to open up and tell their story - I am convinced that those are the posts that can help the some of the skeptics see that this site has real value, and to maybe take some of the info and double check it for themselves.  'Danyel' put herself, and all of her story, right out there.  Can't be easy to do that.  I hope she comes back and sees that her post was a good thing, and understands she is not at fault.  //

I just got scammed through Western union myself....Usually I'm smarter them that but Idk I guess that I let my guard down....I'm stressed about it because I was told that it was going into a amazon payment account....I have an invoice and everything but amazon says that they don't have that transaction in the system....I'm going to my local police department tomorrow to file charges....not only did the person give me wrong info.....I believe that they stole someone else's identity in the service to make it look even better...that money was for a car that I was trying to get to help transport my daughter that had disabilities back and forth to appts....I'm so hurt and have not a clue of what to do

If i knew the name of the man who took money from me out of a moneygram, then he said it was stolen? Can I press charges against him even though no contracts were signed?

1.  You are asking a question of a poster who posted 12 Feb 2012
In case you haven't noticed, that is over 4 years ago.

2.  We cannot pretend we are lawyers, and answer "legal" questions.  Find a real lawyer, and ask him/her!

Your story is incomplete and hints at hidden details.  You sent money to someone, they claimed it, and they told you it was stolen?  So that is likely to just be another story, and is info of no value to you.
IF....If's don't do much good in this case, do they? Too late for the questions that might have kept you from being conned.
  The crooks are pretty good at not letting you know real names or any info that might lead you to them.  The the $$ was sent and claimed out of the US, I think it is gone.
- Regarding contracts, you don't have one, and if you did, I am guessing it would be unenforceable.

My husband send money tru western union to my brother in PI last 10/29 but everytime my husband is sending $4300 to my brother a western union agent is on the phone asking ,if my husband know the person and for what use is the money tha he is sending, asking also the MTCN.so i have the MTCN from 10/29 but I only give to my brother the MTCN 11/2 then when he go to the western union they said it already pick up on 10/30 9:30 pm.
I just want to ask if i can sue western union?.we file a complain and they said wait 20 days from 11/2 -11/22 but when we call they said case ic closed.
without telling us why is it closed, what kind of investigation they do.

You need to consult an attorney for legal advice.  No one here can answer your question, nor would it be legal to do so.

Im also a victim. When i send money to western union the money transfer i made was already been picked by someone whos not the receiver. The western union should be responsible for their negligence. They should be strict when it comes to verification they should ask a passport or a very valid id of the receiver. But now my problem is the money was picked by unknown person. In short it was steal by someone and i think western union has a big responsibility to this.
And now  i want them to fully refund my money.

Never ever pay a invoice thru your email.  Go direct to the payment source.  Anyone using western union is probably a scammer.