FBI To Prosecute "Money Mules"

An anonymous reader writes "A top FBI official said today that the agency is planning a law enforcement sweep against so-called 'money mules,' individuals willingly or unwittingly roped into helping organized computer crooks launder money stolen through online banking fraud, writes Krebsonsecurity.com. The author says he has interviewed more than 150 money mules, and find most fit into one of two camps: the not-so-bright, and those who suspect something's not right, but do it anyway. From the story: 'I find most mules fit into the latter group, and you can usually tell because these individuals often will admit to having set up a new account for the job separate from where they keep their meager savings or checking. When pressed as to why they did this, if they're honest most will say they weren't sure about the whole arrangement and wanted to protect their investments just in case their employers turned out to be less-than-honest.'"

Comments

Re:What?

[hypergreatthing]

You know... if stupidity was illegal just about everyone would be prosecuted.

I always thought that intent was important when being charged with a crime.

But wait

[fustakrakich]

They're going to have to arrest every member of the federal reserve... And what the hell do they think Wall Street is?

financial fraud?

[drDugan]

So let's make sure we're all clear: The FBI, the federal US law enforcement, is cracking down on financial fraud. Great.

They are going after dumb people who set up a bank account to launder a couple thousand dollars?

But they're not going after institutional traders who now offer co-location services with enhanced market data feeds, fueling high frequency trading? They are not going after the banking cartels who manipulate the whole economy? They are not going after Paypal for (among numerous things) blatantly lying about international exchange rates? or on and on and on from examples of large, institutionalized financial fraud?

Re:financial fraud?

[KDR_11k]

They're going for money laundering, i.e. schemes set up to hide the origin of illegally gained money. No matter what crap banks pull with their money, it's at least legally gained and not relevant for money laundering investigations. Checking financial markets is a different department.

Re:financial fraud?

[CorporateSuit]

Hey Hey Hey... you know? When it's 4:00pm on Friday afternoon, and you've got a big fishing trip planned for the weekend, and you just want to see your wife after a long day of paperwork, and your boss comes in and says:

Hey buddy, I got a project for you. I want you to bust some of these financial fraud guys. We have some names you can start with here. On the first list, there are suspected money mules, and on the second list are a bunch of insanely-powerful superbankers that, upon learning of your very existence, will hire a small country of thugs to make sure you and your family never sleep again. Just try to get at least a few of these guys contacted by the end of the day, and give me a status report before you leave. Great. Awesome. [pat on the back]

Which list will you end up "getting around to" before the clock strikes 5?

Re:Yay! stupidity outlawed

[palegray.net]

People are prosecuted for receiving stolen goods all the time. How is this much different?

Re:Huh? Have the cake or eat it, make up your mind

[geekoid]

"smart people because they don't fall so easily for con artists. "

Intelligence has little to do with getting conned.

Re:Yay! stupidity outlawed

[nurb432]

Only when there was reasonable expectation that the goods were stolen. If you acted in good faith you don't get prosecuted, you just lose your stuff.

The trickle up theory of crime fighting

[ZeBam.com]

Go after the little guy to stop the big-time mobsters. Oh yeah, sure, that'll work. Why didn't we think of that before? Put all the small time drug dealers in jail and it will put the big guys out of business. Put all the small-time incompetent terrorists who light their shoes or underwear on fire and put the big guys out of business. Put all the Abu Ghraib prison guards in jail and stop Pentagon Brass and civilian military leadership from being war criminals. Put Fabulous Fabrice on trial and stop finance industry mobsters from raping the planet.

Yeah. What a good idea. Get some good headlines at least.

Re:Huh? Have the cake or eat it, make up your mind

[CrimsonAvenger]

So you mean that it's equally easy (in average) to con somebody with IQ 90 and somebody with IQ 140? Sure, somebody with IQ 140 or higher can be conned and I'm sure there's anecdotally evidence for that, but that doesn't mean it's equally easy to con smart(er) people.

Probably easier to con a smart person than a dumb one. Just convince the smart guy that he's conning you, and he's ripe for plucking....