‘Money mule’ is a term used to describe someone who is recruited by fraudsters needing to launder funds that they have obtained illegally.
As most of the fraudsters behind money mule scams are located overseas and it is not currently possible to make cross-border transfers out of UK online bank accounts overseas, a ‘money mule’ or ‘money transfer agent’ is often used to launder the funds obtained as a result of phishing and Trojan scams. After being recruited by the fraudsters, money mules receive funds into their accounts and then withdraw the money and send it overseas using a wire transfer service, minus a certain commission payment.
Even if the mule has nothing to do with the actual extraction of funds from another person’s account, by allowing their account to be used to receive and transfer such funds, they are acting illegally.
Be cautious about any unsolicited offers or opportunities offering you the chance to make some money.
Be especially wary of offers from people or companies located overseas as it is harder for you to know they are who they say they are. Take steps to verify any company which makes you a job offer, and check their contact details (address, phone number, email address and web site) are correct, and whether they are registered in the UK. Never give your bank details to anyone unless you know them.
Do not respond to unsolicited emails or approaches.
‘More than 870 recruitment adverts for money mules were detected in the first half of 2008’, according to APACS, the UK payments association.
Money mules are recruited by a variety of methods, including spam emails, adverts on genuine recruitment web sites, approaches to people with their CVs available online, instant messaging and adverts in newspapers.
Money mule adverts or offers can take a variety of different forms and they may even copy a genuine company’s web site and register a similar web address to add authenticity to the scam. These adverts will normally state that they are an overseas company seeking ‘UK representatives’ or ‘agents’ to act on their behalf for as period of time, sometimes to avoid high charges for making payments, or local taxes. The advert may be written in poor English with grammatical and spelling mistakes and they may urge you not to inform the bank or the police about the reason for making the payments. The adverts may seek people with accounts at certain banks or Internet payment systems.
Anyone who has disclosed their bank details or received funds into their account for what they think could be a money mule scam should contact their bank immediately.
You should never respond to these advances, especially if you are asked to provide your bank account details to someone you’ve never met. If a specific bank is mentioned in the advert, you should contact their helpdesk on the published number.
You may also report the scam by emailing reports@banksafeonline.org.uk
If you see an opportunity to make some easy money and the offer seems too good to be true, then it probably is!
