Money Muling: Keep your account safe

Fraudsters are always looking for ways to take advantage of new opportunities. Dozens have many prevention measures in place to protect you, but we want to make sure you know how to protect yourself, too.

You may have come across posts appearing on social media channels (particularly Snapchat and Instagram) claiming that you can make money quickly and easily by simply sharing your card and account details with the person behind the posts. 

While we take steps to ensure our customers’ accounts are protected from financial crime, we can’t protect your account if you choose to give someone else access. As such, we think that it’s vital our customers understand what these posts are and how anyone can be affected if they become involved with the people behind them.

These posts are designed by fraudsters to draw innocent customers into their illegal financial activity. The particular kind of activity these posts are promoting is known as ‘Money Muling’.

Money Muling is a type of financial crime in which fraudsters use customer’s accounts to carry illegally acquired funds as a way of laundering money from criminal activity. Money is moved from one account to another to try to hide where it came from and where it will end up. In return, customers are told they will be able to keep some of these illegal funds as a payment for their service. 

It’s tempting to earn money by just letting someone ‘borrow’ your account for a short period, and fraudsters exploit this temptation. What they don’t tell you is that this is a form of money laundering and, by allowing money to be illegally moved through your account, you’re assisting in a crime and can face significant consequences as a result. 

This activity is designed to protect the fraudster, but not those who assist them. The funds may not be recovered, but the accounts involved can be traced and will be closed.

Not only will your account be closed if you’re found to be involved with Money Muling in any way, it can also become exceptionally difficult, if not impossible, for you to get things like credit cards, mortgages, or even another current account. It could also affect your ability to work in certain jobs and, in some cases, even lead to a prison sentence. The reason this kind of financial crime is taken so very seriously is because the dirty money laundered this way can be used to support other illegal activities such as drug dealing, human trafficking or terrorism.  

If you see a post advertising this kind of illegal opportunity, for your own safety, please do not engage with it. Allowing others to use your account to launder money is illegal, dangerous and not worth it. 

We’ll be publishing a series on account security soon that will go into detail about other kinds of financial crime, how we protect you and how you can protect yourself, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, stay safe, sensible and vigilant online when it comes to your account. 

Your safety is our top priority, so if you have any questions or concerns about these posts or anything else, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We’d like to thank our community for making us aware of these posts.