What do you picture when you think of a “money mule”?
Literal interpretations aside, a money mule is a person who is used to transfer and launder illegally acquired money or merchandise (i.e. stolen!) on behalf of or at the direction of another. If you’re a fan of the popular Orange Is The New Black series, you seen an up-close dramatization of a money mule scheme when the main character unwittingly carries drug money onto an international flight.
But unlike in the hit series, you don’t have to be in a foreign country to play a money mule role—in fact, you don’t ever have to meet the criminal in person. In this high-tech world, a cyber actor can enter through your computer and, with the right leverage, persuade you to act illegally on their behalf.
The FBI recently issued a warning about this particular brand of confidence/romance fraud. Through online dating sites, a criminal finds a mark and begins to build a relationship, to create trust. And leaning on that trust, the cyber actor convinces the mark to open accounts under the guise of sending or receiving funds. If the account is flagged by the financial institution, the cyber actor will either direct the victim to open a new account or choose a new mark and begin again.
In other situations, the fraudster claims to be a European citizen or an American living abroad. After a few months of developing trust, the actor will tell the victim about a lucrative business opportunity.
“There are investors willing to fund the project!” says the criminal. “But they need a U.S. bank account to receive funds, and you can help!”
The victim is asked to open a bank account or register a limited liability company in the victim’s name and then to receive and send money from that account to other accounts controlled by the fraudster.
Dating sites are popular fishing spots for victims due to the inherent emotional risks that a victim is willing to take. And this isn’t a small scam: in fact, in 2018, the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) received reports from 18,000 people who claimed to have become victims of confidence/romance fraud. The aggregate losses reached $362 million – an increase of more than 70 percent from 2017.
