EU law enforcement ramps up efforts against money mules

Police forces European Union (EU)-wide are running targeted campaigns against ‘money mules’ until December, according to EU police agency Europol, which says that the number of cross-border investigations into such third-party facilitation of money movement “continues to soar”. In the past two years alone, the European Money Mule Action weeks have identified over 2,000 mules, resulting in 400 arrests in these international hits coordinated by Europol, EU judicial agency Eurojust and the European Banking Federation. More than 90% of money mule transactions discovered so far are linked to cybercrime, such as phishing, e-commerce fraud, and CEO fraud, Europol notes. The targeted campaigns, which will continue this year, aim not only to hunt down money mules and the criminal organisers behind them, but also warn people tempted by easy earnings that it is a crime. Europol explains ‘money muling’ as “classic money laundering with an Internet twist”. It advises people already being used as mules to “stop transferring money and notify your bank and your national police immediately”.