Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Anatomy of Money-Mule Scams

Posted by kdawson on 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.

2 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. I have been trying by El+Lobo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I have been trying for months to be selected by one of those scammers just for fun and to investigate the whole process. I answer every single strange letter from generous companies, rich princes, ex-gobernants of obscure countries, etc. I replay, playing a stupid character, and get so long as getting a few replies. Then, without a reason, they get absolutly silent.

    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....

    --
    It's time to realise that Abble's products are the biggest abomination these days. Just say NO to the dumb iAbble way!!
  2. EBay is not a court of law by thehickcoder · · Score: 5, Interesting

    EBay investigated, concluding that Monroe's phantom employer had tied her PayPal account to a fraudulent auction. The auction site's verdict: She was responsible for repaying the full amount to the blameless auction winner. Monroe is now working two part-time jobs to pay the bills and to make the other victim whole.
    Since when does EBay get to decide who is responsible for fraud?