Reported by: MarketScreener
There has been a sharp increase in those over the age of 40 caught channelling fraudulent funds through their bank account over the last year, according to new data from Lloyds Bank.
Known commonly as ‘money mules’, these people use their bank account to receive criminal cash, either intentionally or unintentionally.
How banks spot suspicious accounts of money mules?
Only in very few occasions are mule accounts opened with fake ID. They are most often unused accounts that previously belonged to genuine holders, who sell them on to criminals, or existing accounts operated normally for a period of time, before being used to receive the proceeds of scams.
Because funds are then typically dispersed in smaller amounts and often moved abroad – in an attempt to evade detection as the money moves through the financial system – this can make funds difficult to track and the accounts involved hard to identify.
Lloyds Bank has developed specialist techniques to rapidly analyse data, spotting tell-tale signs, patterns and behaviour to identify these accounts and seize the funds.
The bank operates an innovative ‘mule-hunting team’ to stop the movement of money from scams which has uncovered more than 130,000 mule accounts and stopped GBP91.7 million from falling into the hands of fraudsters in real-time since it was first set up in 2018.
Last year the bank also launched a pioneering fraud crackdown, seizing the proceeds of crime to fund new initiatives to tackle scams.
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