A mule is a mule, even if it’s money. In the end it is a specimen that carries what others carry on its back, be it black money, drugs… Unlike the strong animal mule, the human mule is the weak link in the money laundering chain, a cheap front for those who really pull the dough move. A random sample: Police from 25 countries arrested 2,469 Money Mules (Money Mules) in a worldwide operation and identified 8,755 of these people who had provided their bank accounts to international criminal gangs so that they could move around without giving their face to criminals benefit from phishing, pharming, targeted malware, CEO scams, Nigerian letters or others. Under the slogan “Don’t be a mule,” police have launched a global campaign to stop criminals from “tricking the innocent” who, with bogus job offers but no strings attached, seek out those in dire economic straits condition.
The “so-called global action against money laundering by money couriers” ended this Tuesday. A total of 25 countries took part in the campaign, in which the European Banking Association was involved. According to the police, a total of 8,755 “money mules” were identified, 222 recruiters, 4,089 fraudulent transactions, which also avoided losses of 17.5 million euros. Of all, 2,459 mules were arrested.
The mule is the bridge for receiving and transferring money between bank accounts, some of which are in his name, which is why he is identified first. At the same time, “criminal organizations access the funds from illegal activities without the initial risk of being identified,” the police clarified. For this reason, the number of identified mules (nearly 9,000) is 40 times higher than the number of recruiters (only 222).
Recruitment is easy, especially for people who are in serious financial difficulties. Direct contact or email are the two main avenues of recruitment, although more often the bad guys resort to social networks “to recruit new accomplices through bogus job postings,” in which they charge “juicy commissions, just for criminals one or more bank accounts,” with almost no requirements provide to which they can transfer illegal funds.”
However, the police know that the mule knows something. Not much, but just enough to make him aware of the crime. The researchers put it this way: “The fines participate with different levels of knowledge in the criminal dynamics of the criminal organization and in many cases are responsible for a crime of money laundering.”
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In Spain, 52 people have fallen, most recently in connection with a “CEO scam,” a technological scam designed to deceive government employees authorized to make payments in both SMEs and large corporations. Criminals impersonate you via email and interfere in negotiations between different companies. Fifteen people were arrested in this operation, in which the money was deposited into an account in the name of a person who provided their information to open bank accounts in the service of the scammers.
The investigations, involving police officers from 21 European countries, the United States, Colombia, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, led to the arrests of the aforementioned 2,459 people, 18 of them in Spain, among the 1,648 investigations carried out worldwide. The operation made it possible to “elucidate the use of mules for a wide range of frauds such as SIM card exchanges, identity theft and phishing, among others,” said the Spanish police in a press release. .
The normal thing is that the black money comes from one country, that it comes from a victim’s bank account that is in another country, goes through a mule’s savings book that is in a third country, to end up in another account, after several jumps where scammers can dispose of the laundered money.
05.12.2022 Press release: “The National Police arrested 52 people in Spain as part of a global campaign against money laundering by money couriers.” The National Police arrested 52 people in Spain as part of a global operation against money laundering through “money mules”. The 18 investigations carried out by the Spanish police uncovered frauds worth almost 800,000 euros and identified 8,755 money mules, 222 recruiters, 4,089 fraudulent transactions and avoided losses of 17.5 million euros. NATIONAL POLICE POLICY NATIONAL POLICE (Europa Press)