Lonely hearts warned of ‘money mules’ scam

Adrian Lowe
August 6, 2008 – 10:59AM

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Lonely hearts and dating website users could be unwittingly enlisted as ‘money mules’ by international money laundering rings, police say.

People answering seemingly legitimate job or dating ads can be stung by the scam, the Australian Federal Police and Australian Bankers Association warn.

‘Money mules’ allow their bank account to receive a deposit of stolen funds – the money is then washed through another account, minus a commission.

These ‘commission payments’ could land ‘money mules’ in strife, the AFP Australian High Tech Crime Centre director James McCormack says.

Anyone allowing their account to be used in this way has profited from the proceeds of fraud and could face 20 years in jail, Mr McCormack says.

“You would be very suspicious if someone you didn’t know asked you to carry a package or money overseas, and similarly, you should be very suspicious about someone asking you to transfer money in and out of your bank account to other accounts.”

An increasingly common method of enlisting ‘money mules’ is to form a relationship with dating website members before fleecing them of cash, the Australian Bankers Association says.

The ‘romance scams’ involve criminals targeting singles, asking for money to be transferred for airfares to enable the ‘couple’ to meet, the association’s chief executive David Bell said.

“The customers who respond to this email also leave themselves at risk of identity theft, as the criminals ask for confidential bank account details,” he said.