How does money muling work?
Money mules are employed by fraudsters to receive large
amounts of money into their bank account
and then transfer it into off seas accounts or withdraw the money
to give to their employer minus a commission payment. Money mules
are not always aware that what they are doing is
illegal. Fraudsters package this process and advertise it to people
as a lucrative business deal or a
highly paid job with little effort involved.
The transfer of un-accounted money between bank accounts is
classed as money laundering. The fraudsters use
people to transfer the money so that it covers their trail. Quite
often money being moved has been involved in scams or being used to
fund serious organised crime.
Be cautious about any
unsolicited offers or opportunities offering you the chance to make
some easy money. Be especially wary of offers from people or
companies overseas as is harder for you to find out if they really
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 and trust them.
What to look out for
- Be wary of any unsolicited offers or
opportunities for work, especially if the company is based
overseas.
- Verify the details of any company that you are
consider dealing with and never give your bank account details to
someone you don't know or trust.
- Contact your bank immediately if you think
that you may have become involved in a money mule scam.
- If you see an opportunity to make some easy money and the offer
seems too good to be true, then it probably
is!
- The nature of the work that the company will claim to be
involved in can vary, but the specifics of the job being advertised
invariably means using your bank account to move
money.
- The advert may be written in poor English with
grammatical and spelling mistakes.