As young people go out looking for work this summer, government agencies want them to be aware of the risks of “money mule” fraud schemes.
Money mules are people who are used to transfer stolen money for another person or a group. The government is particularly worried about students and other people looking for online remote work potentially being involved, often without the knowledge a crime is happening.
In a consumer advisory warning, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said these scams “involve individuals sending and receiving money into their bank accounts, digital wallets, or spot-market crypto trading accounts as part of their job duties or at the direction of others.”
Fraudsters who need to shuffle around illicit funds often exploit the accounts of young job seekers to bypass detection by law enforcement, according to the CFTC. Examples of common fraud schemes producing these funds include lottery fraud, romance scams and grandparent scams, officials say.
It’s possible to unknowingly becoming involved in these scams if you’re tricked into lending a bank account or cryptocurrency wallet to criminals. All of a sudden, you’re participating in money laundering. People who are duped into getting involved can also become identity theft victims, the government warns.
Watch out for ‘money mule’ scams
The involved agencies are warning people to avoid engaging with anyone you encounter online who asks you to move money around as part of a remote work offer. Also look out for requests asking you to set up banks accounts or convert crypto to cash (or vice versa).
“Young people looking for summer jobs may be just looking for part-time income and could be attracted to offers that require being online a few hours a day,” Melanie Devoe, director of the CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach said in a release. “Unfortunately, they could become unwitting accomplices to money laundering or what the criminals call ‘money mules,’ and that association could land them in jail.”
Individuals who move money for criminals can face charges themselves, the government cautions. Law enforcement agencies “took action to stop over 3,000 money mules responsible for facilitating a range of fraud schemes” in the past year, according to a Friday release from the Justice Department. In most of these cases, people received warning letters because they likely became involved on accident, but criminal charges were brought against over 20 people who were more serious offenders and allegedly knew what they were doing.
For example, a case out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri involved the recruitment of college students to receive payment from elderly victims of a tech fraud scam. Three people who orchestrated it were charged after allegedly making bank deposits of around $7 million in cashier’s checks related to the scam over a three-year period.
The government agencies working to stop these types of scams encourage people with information to call the Justice Department’s fraud hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 or make a complaint to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
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