MoneyGram Payment Systems Inc. has entered into an "assurance of voluntary compliance" with Alaska and 43 other states over concerns about the use of the company's wire transfer services by scammers.

MoneyGram will fund a $1.1 million national consumer awareness program and include prominent warnings on the forms that consumers use to wire money, according to Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg.

Minneapolis-based MoneyGram offers money transfers by wire globally at grocery stores, gas stations and other retailers, Colberg said.

The problem concerned money wired by consumers to fraudulent telemarketers.

In a typical fraud, scammers convince consumers they have won lots of money that they can claim after wiring money to cover taxes, Colberg said. There are no winnings, and the victims lose the money they wired.

MoneyGram has agreed to:

• Warn consumers of the dangers of wire-transfer frauds on the front page of its "Send Form" and require comparable warnings for telephone and Web transfers.

• Pay $1.1 million for a national consumer education program on how to avoid such frauds.

• Send monthly anti-fraud messages to its agents and revise its anti-fraud training of its agents.