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Is your child being recruited as a Money Mule?
Do you know what your children are up to on their phone or iPad?
Many children have bank or savings accounts.
They may be asked, by a Herder, if they would help someone in financial difficulty get some money to a third party. A Herder is a fraudster who recruits large numbers of money mules making it difficult if not impossible to trace the source. If the child can help, they keep 10% or the child may be given £3000 with instructions to transfer on £2700 to the third party. With very little effort the child earns relatively small sums but they become part of a Money laundering scam where the penalties can be up to 14 years in prison. Money mules are seldom involved in the underlying fraud and certainly not in the proceeds but they are a vital link in the process and are, as a result, treated somewhat harshly.
Middle class university students are ideal mules because they can be trusted to pass on the loot and are short of cash due to COVID! Such students are encouraged to open multiple bank accounts where they have to produce passports etc. making it easier for the fraudsters to use their accounts without the mule knowing.
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