Middle-class teenagers becoming criminal 'money mules'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3382212/Facebook-fraud-gangs-turn-gullible-middle-class-teenagers-criminal-money-mules-persuading-launder-cash-accounts.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

2 January 2016

Facebook fraud gangs turn gullible middle-class teenagers into criminal 'money mules' by persuading them to launder cash through their own accounts

Gullible middle-class teenagers are being lured through Facebook to join criminal gangs in bank account hacking scams, a Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered.

The youngsters are being promised the chance to make up to £12,000 in just half an hour via the social networking site. They offer their bank accounts to fraudsters as a place to deposit funds plundered from innocent hacking victims. The ‘card mules’ then withdraw the cash and split the proceeds with the criminals, helping them to avoid detection by police.

Our investigators found hundreds of Facebook pages where gang members advertise for accomplices to help them carry out frauds. They tempt teenagers with photographs of themselves in nightclubs or shopping malls posing with the proceeds of their crime, including wads of cash, Apple computers and shopping bags from designer stores such as Louis Vuitton. One page had almost 9,000 members.