Kin Hing Hong Textiles Ltd and the Money Mule Email Scam

I was very surprised when I opened my inbox today to see an email proclaiming: Part Time Job Offer: Kin Hing Hong Textiles Ltd. At first I thought it might be some sort of writing job: I apply for so many web site content writing jobs that they are hard to keep up with, and I have written for some pretty strange web sites in the past. However, Kin Hing Hong Textiles sounded pretty strange, and as I read through the email I realized it had absolutely nothing to do with writing.

The "job offer" seemed simple enough. I would get payments sent to my bank account from their salespeople working here in the United States. I would keep 10% of these payments, take out the other 90% and ship them off to their home offices in Hong Kong via WesternUnion or MoneyGram because they can't accept direct bank payments because they are in Hong Kong. Or something. Pretty simple and easy money, it would seem.

Being rather suspicious of this scheme, I did a quick search for "Kin Hing Hong Textiles Ltd." in Google. Sure enough, I found site after site exposing it as a scam. Apparently there've been people sending out these sorts of emails for a while now, although this is the first time I've run across the scam. It is a very special kind of scam known as the Money Mule scam.

Unlike a lot of scams you actually do get money in your account from the money mule scam. The only problem is that it is all illegal. They are asking you to become a mule in their money laundering schemes. They get the money through whatever channels they get it through (I don't really want to know where they're getting the money), send it to you then you take it out and wire it back to their home base in Hong Kong. Or wherever they might be located, the Kin Hing Hong Textiles Ltd. is only one of the many money mule scams out there, other companies might come from Germany, China, who knows where else.

There are a lot of email scams out there, but the money mule scam is a pretty vicious one. If you get an email offering a job you didn't apply for and they are telling you you can make thousands a week just by sending money to them: it is a money mule scam. The money might be real but they are asking you to become part of an illegal international money laundering scheme and you definitely don't want to become a part of that.

If you already have become a part of such a money mule scam without realizing what it was, contact your bank and the authorities immediately. You want to let them know that you have been unwittingly involved in this scam, especially before the Feds come knocking on your door when they find you out.