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The Anatomy of Money-Mule Scams
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon Jan 28, 2008 07:55 AM
from the if-it-sound-too-good-to-be-true dept.
from the if-it-sound-too-good-to-be-true dept.
Brian Krebs of the Washington Post's Security Fix blog has up an article on work-at-home money mule scams (backgrounder blog post here). These operations offer victims hundreds or thousands of dollars per week for moving money through their own accounts — a critical piece of the infrastructure for profiting from identity theft and phishing. The article links to the site of a UK fraud fighter named Bob Harrison, who lists hundreds of fradulent money-mule operations.
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I have been trying (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know if they get caught or if they just smell that something is fishy, but I guess they are smart and they are searching for a given profile: not too smart, not too dumb, just right....
Re:I have been trying (Score:5, Interesting)
how to get spam [philb.com] - from my own experience, posting my email all over google groups did a fantastic job of getting me spam (was doing a spam related project and needed samples).
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Must be your sig.
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I think that's your problem. They aren't looking for stupid people. They are looking for greedy people. You need to be suspicious and pretend to let your greed get the better of you. For example, say you don't trust them and want a higher cut. Read about the people caught in scams. If you read carefully, you'll see they aren't normally stupid, but greedy.
I've been doing this sort of thing for years. (Score:5, Funny)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o76WQzVJ434 [youtube.com]
Now stop whining because you have to work to eat. At least you get to control if you eat or not.
Re:I've been doing this sort of thing for years. (Score:5, Funny)
"we have a club, it's called EVERYBODY! We meet at the bar."
Parent
all for the easy buck (Score:4, Insightful)
Get rich quick schemes never are quick and they don't get you rich. never have, never will. Grow up and get a real job. Want to make $100k a year, go to college to earn that degree for a position that does make $100k a year.
Re:all for the easy buck (Score:4, Insightful)
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Sounds funny, but that's what some people over here actually do. They post one of those "Work from home, set your own hours, make up to $4000 a month" ads. You contact them (usually on a cell phone nr.) and they'll ask you to send them $100 for a Starter Kit. This kit basically contains instructions on setting up your own "Work from home" scheme to scam others, by selling them your Starter Kits. In a strange recursiv
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In a strange recursive way, this scheme is not illegal here (NL) because the advice in the kit is sound and delivers exactly what was promised in the ad, namely a legal way to make money working from home.
Interesting. In the U.S., I'm pretty sure that would be considered a "pyramid scheme" and therefore illegal. The people who start it may make a lot of money, but once there's no one left to recruit, a bunch of people just lose their starter kit money. The idea of it NOT being illegal is interesting. It raises the question of how much should a government do to protect it's citizens from their own foolishness.
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My guess would be (Score:2)
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Financial Consulting.
Plenty of other fields...
You won't make 100k the year you walk out of college with your diploma, but you will soon thereafter (I'm an engineer; I work with guys in their 30's pulling down six figures in engineering.) if you are a good, hardworking employee. There is no turnkey solution for high pay. You have to work hard, but the rewards are proportionate.
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EBay is not a court of law (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:EBay is not a court of law (Score:5, Informative)
I'm too lazy to look up a citation at 7:30 in the morning, but the last time I looked over the PayPal TOS it pretty much said "we reserve the right to take money out of your account whenever we want to, and your only recourse is to ask us nicely to have it back. Say 'please' and we might consider it."
Don't ever leave more money in your PayPal account than you can afford to lose.
For what it's worth, I think a court of law would have agreed in this case that the woman was responsible. It's impossible to really say without details of the eBay auction in question, but she took the customer's money. What she did with it after that is not the customer's problem. If she took his money in exchange for a service/product that she could not provide, she owes the customer his money back.
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Re:EBay is not a court of law (Score:5, Informative)
That said, the solution to dealing with PP is simple. Never *ever* leave money in your PP account. Either don't link it to a bank account or use one with little to no money in it. Preferably link to your credit card - one with very friendly rules about reversing charges. PP will wipe out your account and push you negative
I'm not advocating knowingly using the mule scams to actually make money - that's fraud and illegal.
Parent
Best fake check ever! (Score:5, Informative)
Now I have sold stuff online for years and can usually spot a fake immediatly...This one I had to take to a bank to confirm!
Someone had stolen a roll of blank money gram money orders and entered a valid serial number and everything. The only thing wrong was the micker ink. The numbers at the bottom of that check were standard ink, not magnetic...
I still have that check on my fridge.
Re:Best fake check ever! (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, aren't you just wasting your time with trying to accept other payment types? I've never heard of non-cash payments being anything except scams... but then again, if you have that on your fridge, you probably enjoy messing with the scammers don't you?
Parent
Re:Best fake check ever! (Score:5, Informative)
My Experience
I have found Paypal to be very good so long as you send to a confirmed address and get tracking. I have had several people try and argue it but once I send Paypal the tracking number the dispute goes away in my favor.
Personal checks are riskier but I still haven't had that much of a problem. I always deposit them first and only ship once it has cleared. In over 1,000 check/money order transactions I have only had one bad check. And the check was bad for lack of funds. The person paid me immediatly with a money order plus my bank fee.
Legit money orders are usually so easy to identify that I would ship "at risk" before depositing them. I have run across 4 people trying to pass off fake money orders and never lost anything to them.
The grandparent is note worthy only because it was actually convincing in all but one detail.
I have had well over 20,000 online transactions and by following the rules above I have had about 30 problems and never lost money on any of them.
The moral of the story is:
Online business is safe and effective for everyone involved so long as you don't do anything stupid like ship before confirming payment and always get tracking numbers.
Parent
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For those who are interested MICR ink is raised, has very crisp edges and will not bleed through the paper.
If you have any concerns, look for those features. If all else fails, take it to a bank and ask them to run it through their MICR reader before depositing it.
Re:Best fake check ever! (Score:4, Funny)
This is a good idea and will help catch most frauds, but many people have access to a MICR check encoder. I worked for a Fortune 100 retailer and they had one in every store, and they were hardly kept under lock and key. Also, if one were an enterprising criminal, one might just buy one [ebay.com].
Obviously, the ultimate (and very elegant) coup de grâce would be to buy it with a fraudulent check.
Parent
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This gave me a good laugh on several levels. They must have been really desperate...
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Banks are requiered to confiscate counterfeit currency and are the only non-federal government organizations that can hold counterfeit money without risking prosecution.
However a check is not subject to such restrictions. Once you try to deposite the check it becomes the property of the bank and they will deliver it to the FBI or whoever. But there is no crime in mearly HOLDING a bad check, only exercising it.
I never tried to cash the check (since I would have
Typo in TFA (Score:3, Funny)
That should of course be:
Easy mistake to make, it's in Word's auto-replace list.
A vital part of the economy! (Score:4, Funny)
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Would Monster.com even still exist if it weren't for scams like these?
This was moded funny, and it sort of is, but it's also insightful. I've never actually used monster, but I've had numerous people tell me that literally half of the replies from Monster postings are either outright fraud or scams that are only technically legal (ie, contacting someone randomly regarding a "job" that doesn't have anything to do with their field and trying to sell them a $200 for a "starter kit," before they can begin "working".)
Another "no news" article? (Score:3, Interesting)
This sort of operation has been going on for at the very least 2 years now. It's hardly "news". But it's stunning that there are still people who fall for that. Let's see... easy money, little to no work involved, shoving money around...
Hello? Does anyone here NOT smell a scam? I still can't decide whether those people are just insanely stupid or whether they know very well what they're doing and just claim to be stupid in case they get busted (and they usually do get busted), as a get-out-of-jail card. After all, stupidity appearantly keeps you safe from prosecution.
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Just like the penny stock scam emails seem utterly stupid to me. But pump-and-dump makes money for those doing it so they continue.
Every time i sell something on criags list i get at least one or two emails offering a random amount MORE than my posting price. Most even offer to pay for the item to be picked up and shipped. They're all obvious scams but if some people didn't fall for them then the scammers wouldn't bother.
I just want to know who the idio^^^^Victims are.
Other End of the Money Transfer (Score:5, Interesting)
A tourist looking guy with an American accent will approach people on the street with a sob story about how was robbed or otherwise lost his trekking backpack and included in the loss was his passport and wallet. His mother is sending him a Western Union Money transfer, but he can't collect it without ID. He then asks if he can call the USA with your name and passport number, have the money wired to you (his mom is always "at the Western Union right now!"). You accept and collect the money transfer at zero cost to you - fees are paid on the other end, and then turn the cash over to this guy. I've heard the sum of 275 euros up to over 800. He even offers 50 euros to reluctant people.
My ex-girlfriend fell for it, and then by coincidence bumped into the same guy two years later, so he's being doing this for a while. I didn't know her the first time she fell for it, but the second time she bumped into the guy, we both assumed it was something to do with drugs but now I'm guessing it probably had something to do with Money Mules.
Interesting that they actually use intermediates on the other end at least some of the time.
Also, The Money Mules would be a great name for an 90's cover band.
Next time (Score:3, Informative)
Money and goods mules (Score:3, Informative)
The particulars might differ based on situation, of course. I've heard of the scammers using images taken from Google Images to convince the mules that they (the scammers) are really a highly attractive woman who just so happened to have fallen in love with them and needs their help with her struggling business. Yes, people fall for this. Partly because the scammers are good at what they do and partly because some people are just greedy idiots. They mentally block out any red flags because of the promise of money.
On one hand, the mules are really sad and pathetic. On the other hand, they get me mad because without them much of the identity theft/eBay fraud/stolen credit card purchases, wouldn't be possible (or at least would be much easier to track).
Paypal and eBay complicit (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone breaks into my house, steals my stuff, and puts it in their house, I am not allowed to just go into the thief's house and steal it back. I am required to give them the due process of law, file criminal charges, provide evidence to the prosecution, and let the jury decide.
If criminal A breaks into the house of victim B, stashes the stuff in victim C's house before moving it to their own house, victim C's landlord can't just decree that victim C has to pay back victim B for the loss.
This is exactly what paypal is doing.
Not really the same... (Score:2)
Ah, but if the money is deposited into a bank, the laws governing ECH transactions (Electronic Clearing House) absolutely state that fraudulent transactions can be reversed. PayPal is sort of Bank-like, so I imagine that their t
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My example
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If *I* break into someone's house, steal their jewlry and rape their cat I'm still afforded due process and the ability to plead my case before a judge. Paypal/ebay OTOH are the arbitrary investigators, judge, jury, and prison warden. You're then left chasing them down begging and pleading to overturn your sentence if you feel that it's wrong or unfair.
To make it
Why can't you just rip them off? (Score:2)
I always wondered why these mules didn't either selectively ship stuff off (hey, international shipping is dodgy..) or just wait until there was enough "good" stuff on hand that they wanted and then sever ties. The same thing holds true with cash transfers -- just wait