Criminals are targeting students for money muling

Criminals are targeting students following rise in money muling cases, with over 19,000 muling reports were filed to the Cifas National Fraud Database (NFD) during January-June 2024.

Over 2,000 reports more than were made in comparison to the same timeframe last year. Herders favouring social media and online platforms to target at speed.

Cifas members and law enforcement agencies expect that young people, particularly students, will remain an attractive target for ‘herders’ who use social media and online platforms with the lure of making ‘quick cash’. Cifas Intelligence suggests the herders are using new tactics to potentially recruit young people – creating and posting fake adverts online disguised as job opportunities and asking students to provide bank details so funds can be transferred between accounts.

Stephen Dalton, Director of Intelligence at Cifas, said: “Herders will often set-up fake profiles to infiltrate social media groups to target victims and depict a luxury lifestyle online to try and sell the idea that muling is low-risk and offers high reward.

“However, it is money laundering and plays a significant role in funding wider organised crime such as drug dealing, terrorism, and human trafficking. Muling has never been a harmless ‘side hustle’ or an ‘easy way’ to make money and should not be a ‘normalised’ crime.”

Cifas has teamed up with UK Finance to launch the ‘Don’t Be Fooled’ campaign providing information and support about money muling.

Sarah Sinden, Don’t Be Fooled spokesperson, said “Criminals try to entice students with offers of quick cash with no strings attached, so it’s important to never engage with fake adverts or click on links to job offers that seem too good to be true.

“Exploiting young people in this way is dreadful. The criminals are coercing them into breaking the law, and that can harm their future. Being a money mule can have long-term consequences for students, like losing their place at university, finding it difficult to access credit or loans, and having their bank account closed.

“Our Don’t Be Fooled campaign aims to teach young people and students about the dangers posed by this type of criminal activity, and how to keep their bank accounts safe.”