Criminals are exploiting people’s financial difficulties by using social media platforms, jobs websites and phishing emails to make offers of easy cash. The aim; to convince people to provide their bank details, before asking them to transfer the funds received to another account and keep some of the cash for themselves, making them a money mule, the trade association UK Finance and Cifas have warned.
Often, people are unaware that allowing their bank accounts to be used in this way is a crime which will have long-term consequences when they are caught. This could include a criminal record, having their bank account closed and difficulty opening one elsewhere, and trouble obtaining mobile phone contracts or accessing credit in future. Those who become money mules are also often not aware that the cash they are laundering is used by criminals to facilitate serious crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking and people smuggling.
The criminals will typically post adverts on legitimate jobs websites or social media, using terms such as “money transfer agents” or “local processors” to recruit people to launder the profits of their crimes. They may also create profiles on social media platforms, infiltrate popular groups or special interest pages to seek out suitable targets, and post images showing off a luxury lifestyle – for example expensive cars or large quantities of cash – to entice young people. Increasingly, money mule recruiters are making use of heavily encrypted instant messaging services to avoid detection.
Industry figures show a marked drop in those aged below 21 being recruited as money mules in 2020, with cases falling by 12 per cent to 8,791. This may be due to lockdown restrictions which have meant teenagers are spending time at home with their parents and have reduced opportunities for criminals to approach young people in person, such as outside schools and at universities. The overall number of suspected cases of money muling activity across all age groups fell slightly in 2020 from a peak the previous year, but remain 27 per cent higher than in 2017.
UK Finance and Cifas are calling for fraud and economic crime to be included in the upcoming Online Safety Bill. This would make online platforms responsible for taking down fraudulent content, including social media posts or job adverts used to recruit people as money mules.
Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said: Criminals are cruelly preying on ‘Generation Covid’ and those struggling to find work at this difficult time, by using fake job adverts online to recruit people as money mules.
“We would urge everyone to remain cautious about any offers of quick and easy money and remember that if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. At the same time, online platforms must take swift action to detect and take down content being used to promote money muling activity. Organised criminal gangs use money mules to launder the profits of their devastating crimes, including fraud, drugs smuggling and people trafficking. We all have a duty to stop them.
Some advice of the Don’t Be Fooled campaign:
– Research any potential employer by conducting your own background checks and making sure their contact details are genuine;
– Don’t respond to adverts offering large sums of money for minimal effort;
– Be wary of job ads that are written in poor English with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes; and
– Don’t give your bank account details to anyone unless you know and trust them.
