July 25, 2016
If you are offered a handsome income for easy work or a commission to facilitate a banking transaction, don’t fall for the offer. You could become an unwitting accomplice in a financial crime. Criminal syndicates are forever searching for people whose bank accounts can be used to launder their ill-gotten money. Known as ‘money mules’, these people are lured by work-fromhome job offers, lucrative commissions and freelancing opportunities through e-mails, ads and job portals. The fraudsters ask for bank details and transfer money into the person’s account. He is offered a hefty commission on the transferred sum. The money mule is then directed to transfer the money to another money mule’s account, starting a chain that ultimately results in the money getting transferred into the criminal’s account.
Experts say that the lure of easy money causes money mules to turn a blind eye to the risks and the illegality of the deal. If someone is offered 2-3% of a large sum running into thousands of dollars for just lending his bank account, he may not want to consider the pitfalls of the arrangement. But sophisticated financial forensics can trace the money mules and bring them to book.Their bank accounts get suspended, their credit scores fall off the cliff and they can even be put in jail for collaborating in a criminal activity.