Slowing down the money mule train, that is. Money mules are those individuals who transfer money or goods received through fraudulent schemes on behalf of or at the direction of a criminal enterprise, often based outside the United States. It's a form of money laundering.
In December 2019, the FBI announced it was collaborating with other domestic and international law enforcement agencies to identify, stop, and prosecute major money mule networks. Two months later, it claimed that the operation had stopped the illegal actions of more than 600 domestic money mules—a 50 percent increase in their success rate over the entire previous year. (The U.S. efforts coincided with the European Money Mule Action, led by Europol, the European Union's agency that combats crime and terrorism.)
So who are these money mules and how are they recruited? The money mules fall into two main groups: innocent participants and those people who are as criminal as the leaders of the fraud schemes. It's the money mules who take the greatest risk; the leaders of the schemes use them to insulate themselves from arrest and prosecution.
The first group, the naïve participants, are generally recruited through online ads, résumés submitted to mainstream job search sites, or emails promising work-from-home employment as a "payment processing" or "money transfer" agent. Upon being "hired," these people must provide their bank account information so that deposits can be made to their accounts. If the victims say they want to open a new account to process these transactions, the contact dissuades them from doing so because new accounts face additional scrutiny and restrictions. When a deposit is made, a mule has to transfer those funds, minus the "commission," to another bank account. That account is usually outside the United States so the transfer occurs through an international money transfer service. The mule might also be asked to purchase gift cards, load funds onto them, and then provide the card numbers and PINs to the contact. Individual transactions are generally under $10,000 to avoid the filing of currency transaction reports or suspicious activity reports.
Sometimes truly innocent participants are caught in a "cuckoo smurfing" scheme. In this scenario, someone's bank account credentials are compromised without that person's knowledge. The criminal deposits or transfers money into the account and quickly moves it over to another account. The innocent participant isn't aware of this transaction until he or she checks the account.
However, the vast majority of money mules are people who clearly know they are acting illegally. They are often part of local, national, or international gangs, and use the proceeds of money mule activities to fund other criminal activities.
While there have been a number of enforcement successes, including the effort announced by the FBI, the constant attention being given to this problem indicates it persists. Hats off to all the various law enforcement agencies involved in this money mule crackdown. Hopefully, the increased publicity will prevent individuals from unknowingly becoming part of these networks as well as highlight the scams used to victimize others. What other actions do you think will help curb this type of crime?
By David Lott, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed