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.

5 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?
    1. Re:EBay is not a court of law by BlueNoteMKVI · · Score: 5, Informative

      ....since you agreed to their Terms of Service.

      I'm too lazy to look up a citation at 7:30 in the morning, but the last time I looked over the PayPal TOS it pretty much said "we reserve the right to take money out of your account whenever we want to, and your only recourse is to ask us nicely to have it back. Say 'please' and we might consider it."

      Don't ever leave more money in your PayPal account than you can afford to lose.

      For what it's worth, I think a court of law would have agreed in this case that the woman was responsible. It's impossible to really say without details of the eBay auction in question, but she took the customer's money. What she did with it after that is not the customer's problem. If she took his money in exchange for a service/product that she could not provide, she owes the customer his money back.

  3. Best fake check ever! by clonan · · Score: 5, Informative

    Last year I had someone send me a Money Gram money order to cash for something I was selling on craigslist. I was kinda suspicious when he asked to cash a check for more than I was selling the item for....

    Now I have sold stuff online for years and can usually spot a fake immediatly...This one I had to take to a bank to confirm!

    Someone had stolen a roll of blank money gram money orders and entered a valid serial number and everything. The only thing wrong was the micker ink. The numbers at the bottom of that check were standard ink, not magnetic...

    I still have that check on my fridge.

  4. Re:I've been doing this sort of thing for years. by downix · · Score: 5, Funny

    never thought I'd be quoting Drew Carey...

    "we have a club, it's called EVERYBODY! We meet at the bar."

    --
    Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.