Identification of mule accounts
When there is fraud there is a mule account; in fact, it’s more important than botnets or phishing methods because what will hackers do with the banking credentials they have if they can’t use them? It is a big part in the fraud and the scammers will look for ways just to recruit and also control the mules.
Today, the recruitment of mules is carried out on the Internet through the use of scams. Scammers will send a fake job search email saying the victim’s resume has been reviewed and they are fit to work at home. Due to the fact that the economy is tough and it is an opportunity, the victims will take the bait. In subsequent email exchanges, the victim will sign fake documents and receive task instructions from her. Sometimes the mules will be directed to accept funds from compromised accounts, reship goods that were purchased with someone else’s credit card, or even receive the money.
Soon the scammers ran into a problem, when potential recruits would ask for the company’s website. To fix the problem, the scammers even created their own website as a front end of their activities and candidates can view the site and see the openings. They made it look like a legitimate company by listing current employees and their jobs; details about your work and others.
Online mule recruitment has changed the way scammers operate because they don’t need a physical presence in that country in order for them to recruit potential mules. Since you are doing your recruitment online, you can further increase the number of mules to increase your earnings. It has become a challenge for many law enforcement agencies and industry incident response teams because the mules thought they had legitimate jobs. Sometimes even mules also become victims.
Sometimes there are places where online recruitment can become a problem, so scammers will continue to recruit mules in the real world. Sometimes these mules can be achieved by knowing that they are working with scammers and can open multiple bank accounts. Another type of mule is what the police call holiday or tourist mules; mules that are flown to different countries and opens accounts in certain banks for their operation.
In some ways, it is difficult for banks to stop a mule from opening a bank account because mules can be just like any other normal person trying to open a bank account. However, it is still possible to identify a potential mule and stop it before it makes any mistakes that it will regret. Since mules can either be trained liars or unwitting victims who are all too willing to make money. Identifying the former can be difficult, but the latter is not.
Identifying unwitting mules can be very easy by asking a simple question before they can open bank accounts. It’s the same as the security check you find in airports, where you ask strange questions; questions that are not designed for liars but for certain people who were deceived and placed in a particular situation.
For example, bank employees will ask the individual if anyone else told them to open a bank account at this bank; or asking if the opening of this particular bank account is related to a particular job offer he received on the internet or even in real life. Or any other question that raises alarm bells for the bank, but doesn’t mean the clerk can really assess whether that person is a potential mule or not. In fact, the answers will be recorded and the opening of the bank account will be suspended until more results are available from the investigations carried out by the incident management or security team.
Basically, banks do not need to carry out additional special training for their employees, a simple information campaign on the new procedures will suffice. Customer education really isn’t that important at all, but it won’t hurt the bank if they try to give out flyers or post ads explaining the danger of mule scams. Instead, bank customers and the public will appreciate the information provided by banks and can help prevent fraud in recruiting more mules.
The International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council) is a membership-based organization that certifies individuals in cybersecurity and electronic commerce. He is the owner and developer of 20 security certifications. EC-Council has trained over 90,000 security professionals and certified over 40,000 members. These certifications are recognized around the world and have been endorsed by various government agencies. They also offer incident response training.