No, it’s nothing to do with a dearth of donkeys on Blackpool Pleasure Beach; Mule Recruitment is a sophisticated type of online fraud that could leave you with a frozen bank account and facing criminal charges.
It only seems like yesterday we were launching Get Safe Online Week 2008. But a great deal has happened in the past year and we’re now seeing a rapid rise in ‘money mule’ scams as fraudsters seek to exploit our financial worries in the wake of the recession.
A money mule is someone who, recruited by a fraudster, transfers money illegally gained in one country to another country, usually where the fraudster lives. Innocent job hunters are lured into the scams by fake, but professionally presented, job adverts, often placed on mainstream recruitment websites.
Read our fact sheet on Mule Recruitment to learn more about the risks and watch the video to learn how to spot a money mule scam.
Victims are mislead into believing that genuine jobs are available, such as ‘financial manager’, ‘money transfer agent’, ‘shipping manager’ or even ‘mystery shopper’ (purporting to evaluate customer service at high street banks). Once ‘recruited’, money mules are persuaded to share their bank details and are then unwittingly used to launder the profits of the fraudsters’ criminal activities.
At any given time, there are approximately 100 known mule recruitment sites targeting the UK, each of which may have lured in around 50 active mules. The risk is that by allowing their bank accounts to be used to receive and transfer illegal funds, mules are breaking the law – even if they don’t realise it.
Mules can become part of a police investigation and are often the easiest part of the criminal chain to track down. When ‘caught’, money mules often have their bank accounts suspended and can be liable for all the proceeds of the fraud.
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Thanks for the post and for sharing the very resourceful information here.
Good article, expecially highlighted by the Chris Evans programme, but who do you contact if we receive one of these emails?
Melanie
Melenie,
If you receive one of these emails, or think you may be a victim of one of these scams, contact your bank immediately. Go to the main Get Safe Online website for more information.
I think that one of the most telling messages at your conference was that the Bank systems for picking up suspect transactions are now so sophisticated that the average life of a mule is only three or four transaction before they lose their bank account and credit rating .
It that is indeed correct it is a real deterrent and needs to be much more widely publicised.
Hence my blog on “When IT Meets Politics” – below: –
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/when-it-meets-politics/2009/11/four-strikes-before-the-e-deat.html#more