18 December 2009

Fake recruitment website warning

Online jobseekers are being warned not to be tricked by websites used to recruit unwitting money mules.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) says websites are currently being used to recruit ordinary people who send and receive payments through their bank accounts to facilitate business.

In reality, the cash has been laundered from crime, leaving unwitting mules open to prosecution.

According to a new campaign highlighting the problem, fraudsters are using a variety of bogus and legitimate recruitment channels to con job-hunters into thinking they have found genuine employment.

But in each case the job comes down to asking the victim to receive relatively small payments into their own account and then moving them onwards to another bank.

Official figures suggest there was a 55% rise in online banking fraud in the first half of 2009, equal to £39m in losses. This money has to be laundered through the system so that it cannot be linked to the criminal networks behind the original theft.

According to Soca some money mules know exactly what they are doing. However, many end up unwittingly laundering profits for overseas criminals as a result of being taken in by fake recruitment sites. As a result they end up liable for all the criminal funds they've received - which must be repaid - and they may be subject to criminal investigation.

 

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