A key element for online fraud to work is for the fraudsters to collect their stolen funds from their victims. This is particularly important because the criminals perpetrating the fraud itself are often located in a different country to their victim, typically Cameroon in the case of pet scams. As such, they need to be able to move the stolen funds back to Cameroon. This process is commonly known as “cashing out” by the criminals and it can involve the use of complicit mules, romance fraud victims and members of the public that are recruited into being money mules through fake job adverts. In this short blog post, we will inform you about the three basic types of money mule.
Money Mule Type #1 – the “knowing mule”
This is a very simple type of money mule to understand, for the simple reason that they are usually also from West Africa. Typically, they travel to the country where the victims are located and set up bank accounts and other means to collect payments using many different fake ID’s. We have seen this strategy used time and time again in the USA. Once the funds are sent by a victim to a bank account setup by the mule, they will immediately withdraw the funds and send it back to Cameroon using a non-refundable payment method such as cryptocurrency.
Money Mule #2 – the “romance fraud victim”
This type of money mule is usually a victim of fraud themselves, online romance fraud. In this type of fraud, fraudsters may convince their victims under the guise of being their romantic partner to forward on payments made to their bank account. The fraudster in this instance typically tells the romance fraud victim that the money they are receiving is a “gift” and that they can keep an amount of the payment so long as they forward the remainder on to another bank account.
Money Mules #3 – the “fake job advert”
Many money mules are simply recruited through popular social media platforms and on fake websites. Typically, the adverts will advertise for a well-paid part-time position, often stating that they are looking for a “payment processing assistant”, “money transfer agent”, or a “local processors”. In many cases the unsuspecting applicant will undertake a text or voice only interview. The interviews are merely formalities and irrespective of what you say or how little effort the applicant puts into it they will always receive a job offer. Criminals know that there are plenty of applicants for these jobs because they offer high rates of commission, typically 10-15% for any transaction that they launder. For the mule, because their bank account is often the first place that stolen funds go into there is a high chance that they will be banned from the financial service provider, receive a negative credit score, or be arrested. Interestingly, many mules recruited through this technique are in many cases younger persons aged between 21 and 35.
Below you can see an example of an actual fake money mule recruitment advert.
Who are these Money Mules?
In theory anybody could be a money mule from the naive to the lovestruck who are being scammed into laundering money to the complicit criminal who evaluates the risk and thinks they can get away with it.
If you are being contacted by someone with a “too good to be true” deal or a job, you too could become a money mule.