What is a money mule, and why do scammers need one?

A money mule is a person who transfers money acquired illegally, such as by theft or fraud, on behalf of others. Typically the mule is paid a small part of the money transferred. Scammers need mules because the real benefit to the criminals is not the work the mule does, but that the criminals are distanced from the risky, visible transfer.

Many mules are recruited online under the guise of legitimate employment, and are not aware that the money they are transferring is the product of crime. The job ads often use titles like "payment processing agent" or "money transfer agent". Mules recruited this way are typically used to transfer the proceeds of online fraud, such as phishing, malware and auction-site scams. Other people become mules through a fake romance, believing they are helping a loved one.

Mules matter because money moving through an ordinary person's account is harder to follow. A central element of advance-fee fraud is that the victim's payment must be untraceable and irreversible; otherwise the victim could retrieve their money and alert officials. By using instant payment mechanisms, a mule allows a thief to turn a reversible and traceable transaction into an irreversible and untraceable one.

The legal position is serious: money mules risk criminal prosecution and long jail sentences. Yet the FBI, the Internet Crime Complaint Center and Europol recognize three groups, from unwitting to complicit, and the line between victim and accomplice is often difficult to define.