Reported by: Daniel Oropeza

In 2022, BioCatch, a software company that delivers advanced fraud protection, estimated that there are approximately two million mule accounts in the U.S., and about $3 billion in fraudulent transfers a year. The same research estimates that scammers are lowering their transaction amounts to mules to an average of $1,500 to avoid detection by traditional means. They are also upgrading their methods by using hybrid bots that allow them to open multiple mule accounts at scale.

What is a money mule?

A money mule is the scapegoat for the criminals. Mules end up moving money of a criminal scheme from one place to another, hence the “mule” part. They usually receive money and transfer it into another bank account, or gives up control of their bank accounts to scammers.

How are money mules recruited?

There are four main types of ways people are recruited to be unwitting money mules:

• Remote work: Often, these “job offers” will promise a lot of money for very little to no effort, but are not from legitimate companies or jobs.
• Gamers: Scammers get gamers to transfer their dirty money to in-game currency, then buy weapons or power up their avatars with the intention of selling these characters for in-game virtual currency. They typically sell on secondary markets like eBay or player auctions. These micro transactions are difficult to detect because of their lack of regulation.
• Dating apps: Scammers will form relationships with victims for months or even years. Once they build enough rapport, they start asking for “money favors.” (Obviously, don’t send or receive money from someone you just met online, especially if you’ve never met them in person.)
• Sweepstakes “winners”: This is when you might win a contest or sweepstakes you never entered, or you enter one and win right away. You’re instructed to deposit the money you’ve been sent into your personal bank account, keep a portion, and send the rest back. These kinds of scams are called “prize scams.”

Recognize the red flags of money laundering scams

If employers use free personal email services (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook, etc.), be suspicious. Most legitimate employers will have their own custom email domains, like “@lifehacker.com.” Often times, these job postings will be on apps that are not well vetted for legitimacy, like Craigslist or Facebook.

If the company or “job” tasks you with opening a bank account under your name for whatever reason, your spider senses should similarly go off. The tricky part is that they’ll usually try to disguise the task as a legitimate task for the company, but a legitimate business has no reason to ask employees to do such things.

If the company gives you money with the condition that you process or transfer the money out somewhere else, that’s the definition of money laundering. They might suggest wire services, mail, Western Union, MoneyGram, PayPal…the list goes on. The scammers will try to entice you by telling you to keep a portion of the money.

Read full report: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/illegal-money-mule-whether-know-160000619.html