Prime time piece on online money mules

ottolwinner

Piece just on rte prime time there about money mules. Recruitment of people to launder money through their accounts. One stat they gave was that 33% or revolut staff now work in bank fraud. Has bank fraud gone out of control?

it seems it’s easier for people over the net to defraud your account than it ever was.

pins/ chip and pins etc we were always told these things were to make banking more secure.

have I the wrong impression of banking now that that you’re more likely than not going to be scammed at some stage.

Atlantic Dawn

People are still falling too easy for scams which are all over the news the last year, things like Mum I lost my phone texts, Amazon, eFlow, Electric Ireland, home energy grants etc etc.

I do think that they need to set a 6 months in jail minimum term for money mules involved in facilitating money going through their accounts, these are the cog in the wheel allowing this to happen, particularly for Irish to Irish accounts which cause less suspicion.

ottolwinner

Yea I agree Atlantic Dawn people seem to fall very easy for the scam texts but even still it seems easier for fraudsters to get money. When 33% of revolut staff are dedicated to fraud it says something about the problems that exist.

Atlantic Dawn

I suppose personal responsibility comes in to it, if you are inputting secure PIN and passwords because you got a text from some unverified person claiming to be your son seeking €790 for a replacement EyePhone then it's only yourself to blame and no level of security on the bank side can ever fix that.

ottolwinner

Yea I agree in terms of that.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058329638/prime-time-piece-on-online-money-mules

I have not seen this piece, nor am I likely to as I don't live in Ireland anymore. But the "money mules" stuff is well known for at least 10/15 years or more and has nothing to do with scamming accounts. The people involved in this stuff know exactly what they are doing and the execution is usually very professional. That is why the banks not only look for large transfers but monitor small transactions as well and look for patterns.

The reality is that when it comes to financial fraud we are up against some very professional organisations who are dedicated to braking through any defence we put up. So chip & pin and all the other stuff we use has a limited life span before it is broken.

And yes the chances are high that as some stage you will be scammed, it is just part of life.

coylemj

Not every scam is caused by lax security on the part of banks, a lot of them involve invoice redirecting. A recent case in the Irish courts involved a German company being defrauded by a fake invoice which they paid. The money was sent to the Irish account of a lady who was acting as a money mule.

dxhound2005

I didn't see it either, but it may have been a rerun of information published by RTE and all over the internet in 2023.

https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2023/1031/1413840-revolut-doubles-financial-crime-headcount-since-2021/

I took an interest this post because of what struck me as a very unlikely stat, 33% of the staff working exclusively ? on dealing with fraud. I wonder is it that many people dedicated solely to that area, or would they have other duties as well. It is a lot of resources given to something which would not make them any profit??

ottolwinner

That’s what I wondered myself. Seems a huge amount of staff and obviously at a cost to customers in other aspects of banking services.

ottolwinner

Managed to find the piece here from twitter

sorry boards won’t let me post the link

it’s on twitter @RTEprimetime

coylemj

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121575068#Comment_121575068

It's hardly worth posting as all it does is say that you can watch it on RTE One. But here it is anyway.....

https://x.com/RTE_PrimeTime/status/1743023245740392813?s=20

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121575034#Comment_121575034

Invoice redirection fraud has been tackled in the UK using confirmation of payee.

The SEPA area has fallen badly behind.

It's a basic requirement that I should be able to see if an IBAN and an account name correspond before making a payment.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058329638/prime-time-piece-on-online-money-mules

...the faster banking transfers are, the higher the potential of fraud is, this has always been the case, so, ta-da......

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121575039#Comment_121575039

My question would be 33% of what exactly, 33% of the staff engaged in the Irish, as well as what kind of activities do they consider fall into the category?

Account setup in common law jurisdictions like Ireland are more complex because they lack the the typical national id infrastructure found civil law jurisdictions or other places where the Napoleonic codes were applied. If you consider such verifications as fraud detection rather than account verification then you might hit that figure as well.

Generally speaking banks make a trade off between the cost of fraud detection and the projected payouts if they don't bother... maybe that is the cheapest solution for them, it is hard to draw any solid conclusions.

Oscar_Madison

Very worrying - 60 suspected money mules in Kerry alone- school kids in the main here- perhaps it’s easily done recruiting on a friend by friend basis- I would presume that both parents and kids have been warned about this at this stage - you wouldn’t necessarily expect a 16 year old to naturally know the massive significance and criminal penalties of allowing their account to be used to launder money- its something they’d need education on

“He said that 32 of the 50 or more students involved in the greater Tralee area have been prosecuted in the District and Circuit court, but there are a number still before the court awaiting sentence.”

https://www.rte.ie/news/munster/2024/0131/1429688-kerry-money-mules/#:~:text=School%20students%20among%20suspected%20'money%20mules'%20in%20Kerry%20probe&text=School%20students%20as%20young%20as,has%20led%20to%2032%20prosecutions.

coylemj

Recruiting people to act as money mules seems to me to be a carbon copy of the scheme whereby people who steal bikes find an old geezer to sell them from his house for a slice of the action and if he is caught and convicted, it's a first offence so he knows he is going to get a slap on the wrist and the people behind the scheme simply move on and find another willing participant.

dxhound2005

Is it not too soon to expect convictions from that operation? Also call Operation Jackal. Unless the prosecutions have already resulted in all except that very few being acquitted?

10/08/2023 | 15:59 PM

KENNETH FOX

Gardaí in conjunction with Interpol have arrested and charged 33 people for money laundering as part of a global investigation targeting West African organised crime. The investigation, dubbed "Operation Jackal", was led by law enforcement agencies in May across 21 countries in six continents and targeted cybercrime groups such as Nigerian criminal gang "Black Axe," Interpol said in a statement. The international policing organisation said it was closing ranks on West African organised crime after recently seizing more than €2 million.

Gardaí said as part of the operation there were:

• Three premises searched in Dublin, Wicklow and Longford;
• Nine people arrested and detained under organised crime legislation;
• Four people arrested and detained for money laundering offences;
• 33 people arrested and charged for money laundering;
• One person arrested and charged with gangland offences and money laundering;
• Nine incidents of stolen money recovered from foreign bank accounts;
• And over €400,000 of stolen money recovered for Irish companies.