Understanding Money-Mule Scam; Tips to Avoid a Money Mule Scam

Due to various opportunities provided by the Cryptocurrency platforms like anonymity, pseudonymity, decentralized platforms, etc. more and more people are getting attracted to it. Within the wide range of users, there are also a few perpetrators of illegal activities like online theft or money laundering. Today, we are here with one such money laundering scam called the ‘Money-Mule’ scam.

What Is a Money Mule Scam?

In the money mule scam, a person transfers the money obtained by illegal method on behalf of the scammers. The people who are used by the scammers for money laundering are the money mules and they use them as ‘mules’ to transfer the illegal amount possessed by the scammer.

How Do Money Mule Scams Work?

The scammers get the mules by providing lucrative opportunities like work from home jobs or using a dating app etc. and have them deposit the scammers’ check or funds into the mule’s account. Once the amount is deposited, they ask them to move the money through various channels like gift cards, bank transfer or wire transfer, cashier’s check, credit/debit cards, courier service, etc. This may get the mule into serious trouble like going to jail or being compelled to pay the large amounts from their account. Also, the perpetrator now has all the account information of the mule so they can persuade the mule to get involved in more illicit activities.

Types Of Money Mule

So far, three types of Money Mule scams are recognized by the FBI.

• Unwitting or Unknowing — People associated with this type of scam are generally unaware of being a mule. The victims fall for any job offer or romance scam without knowing that they are being used as a mule by the scammer.
• Witting– This is the category of people who continue to practice as a mule even if they are warned about what kind of role they are going to play. Though they might have started unwittingly, they continue to operate due to an easy way of financial gain or unwillingness to accept the fact that they are indulging in some wrong practices.
• Complicit — These are the people who are generally the members of any criminal gang and they are very well aware of what they are doing. Such people usually continue money laundering just to serve loyalty towards associated groups. They travel across different countries opening new accounts and recruiting more mules.

Warning Signs

• Receiving undesirable emails, offers, and social media messages promising considerable profit without any effort.
• Request to open accounts and deposit money.
• The ‘employer’ communicates through web-based services like Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc.
• Providing incentives for transferring money.
• Laying down online contracts and asking you to receive and transfer the funds.

How to protect yourself?

• Check the legitimacy of the company that offers you the job.
• Reject the offers that wish to use your account for money transfer.
• Don’t participate if someone asks you to form a new company.
• Never give your financial details to anyone.
• Beware of the people who indulge you in such malpractices through dating apps.

Final Thoughts

So, here is another scam added to our scam list, to protect oneself from falling for lucrative offers and getting involved in any scam. If you find more sources to learn about this scam, never miss them. In such a scam and particularly this one people don’t even know that they are getting involved in the wrong practice. So, stay updated and keep yourself safe from these malpractices.