Muleteers, Victims of False Job Offers

Once the "future teleworkers" contact with the advertiser, they fill in a form to be able to accede the job. They fill in their personal data and also their bank account number, something essential to carry out the assumed job. Everything seems normal, but in fact, those offering the job are counterfeit companies that seek to whiten money coming from the phishing, one of the most frequent illegal activities inside the universe of hackers and crackers.

Phishing

By means of an apparent official communication from an acknowledged company, such as eBay, PayPal or some bank entity, cyber criminals try to force the victim of phishing to give their personal data, bank account, user name and password so the cyber criminals can be able to use that information for their own benefit. The user is diverted to a web site that is practically identical to the ones the real companies use but with a variant in the http address that does not have anything to do with the real ones. In this way, it is highly feasible that the trick should work with someone off guard.

Once the swindlers obtain the information and enter the bank account they are in conditions to transfer the stolen money to another account. Of course that if they transfer it to their own account they would be leaving evidences easy to track by the police. That is where the role of the muleteer or human mule is essential. It is the person who will participate as intermediary between the swindled and the swindler allowing the money to be washed. That person is who fell into the trap with the false job announcement.

Modus Operandi

Under no circumstances the over confident muleteer that is being tricked is aware of the crime he is committing. The counterfeit company that employed him will transfer the money to his account. Afterwards, the company will ask him to get a 5 or 10% commission and to send the rest to another deposit, by means of MoneyGram, WesternUnion or any other mechanism for sending foreign exchange to an Eastern or South African country. So, in that way, the swindle will be accomplished.

The main problem lies in the fact that justice will not seek for the swindler, from whom they do not have any information and also moves among the shadows, but directly to the person who appears to be the beneficiary of the stolen money. No more, no less than the muleteer, to whom it will demand the refund of the supposedly stolen capital, when actually he only received a small commission.

Victim's profile

Generally, among the deceiving announcements that circulate, the profile of the muleteer oscillates from 21 to 50 years old. Some of the requirements they usually enumerate are: that the potential employee should be communicative, reliable, diligent, capable to learn in the process of work and responsible. They do not make a stand on the educational level and they promise a monthly payment of 1000 to 4000 euros. An attractive figure for a two hours daily job, easily combinable with other activities. In other cases the only essential requirement, being an account holder, will be enough to become an intermediary of a person from whom you do not know his name and you will never see his face.

One of the main problems of this criminal practice lies in the fact that any internet user can be a victim of this fraud. Both of the abovementioned phishing and of being fooled in the false job offer. The economic need or the ingenuousness of believing that in the net there still exists the easy money can end up playing a mean trick to any person who is not forewarned and informed about these practices.

By Carlos Cabezas López