WORK AT HOME & MAKE BIG MONEY – MONEY MULES RECRUITED ON-LINE BY CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS TO FACILITATE ID THEFT.

Phishing is not longer a crime of individual hackers. Phishing has become a favored tool of organized criminals. To facilitate the volume of frauds perpetrated by crime groups these organizations have been recruiting innocent citizens into their criminal activities. These “money-mules” are recruited to launder stolen money and stolen goods nationally and internationally.

Innocent people are drawn into participating in these frauds through major employment listings and often as work at home opportunities. Job titles such as “financial receiver”, “sales rep”, “shipping manager” or “stock supervisor” are offered for these fake positions.

Innocent victims from the US, UK, and Australia are often duped into the illegal transfer of funds to Eastern Europe. Money mules are critical to the success of these operations. Identity Theft victims are at the start of the chain of fraud. Money mules are at the end. The criminal organizations, in the middle, not only steal, but then must convert their ill gotten gains into clean money.

Successful phishing often results in “profile” information of the identity theft victim that allows the thieves to attack the victims assets. Money mules are needed in the same country as the victim in order to easily accept money transfers or to ship items to the crime groups.

Investigators recently spotted a Craigslist advertisement for a "regional assistant" and contacted a company called Terenfc and requested a job application. Terenfc described itself as a wholesale product distribution company. They offered a commission program of $50 per received package and then transferred plus a base salary of $2,000 per month.

Terenfc then sent the investigator an employment agreement with the following terms:
-- To accept merchandise orders at his/her residential address;
-- To handle the received merchandise in accordance with the reasonable conditions of handling of items;
-- To fill in all the necessary postal documents of the postal service company in complete accordance with their instructions;
-- To ship the item or merchandise to the address listed in the instructions;
-- To scan and send via e-mail or fax all postal documents attached to the shipped correspondence (such as invoices, package slips, custom declarations, receipts or courier's tracking numbers) to the representative of the company within one business day.

Investigators also determined that money mules were encouraged to open multiple accounts with the same bank as the identity theft victim. This allows for small transfers between accounts that just stay under the radar.

Criminal groups contact prospective victims with phony job ads through employment websites, general company websites, e-mail, and Internet chat rooms. Jobs are often advertised as managerial but have no real requirements for experience or education.

Criminal organizations convince victims to work for their company and often use contracts forms to cement the employment relationship. When employed the money mules take funds into their accounts from accounts that have been stolen or compromised. Mules then transfer funds out of their accounts and send them via wire transfer service to criminal accounts overseas.

Money mules are key to the success of these criminals. Without the money mules the criminals cannot get to their stolen goods and get their money.