© Provided by City AM Unemployed young adults are increasingly being approached to become so-called "money mules" for organised crime new data shows.
Criminals use job adverts and social media, young people are fooled into providing their bank details or persuaded to hold a sum of money and transfer it, in return for a payment.
There were 17,000 suspected money mule cases involving 21-30 year olds in 2020, up five per cent on the year before according to UK Finance.
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Although the young people might not know it the process is illegal and can lead to a criminal record, the closure of bank account and difficulty securing a mobile phone contract.
Money muling may involve simply holding or moving money about but Cifas said it can facilitate crimes such as drug trafficking, terrorism and people smuggling without realising.
Fraud protection service Cifas has reported that 21-30 year olds accounted for 42 per cent of money mule activity in 2020, up from 38 per cent three years ago.
Because youth unemployment has been higher during the pandemic, this age group is being targeted for what may seem as easy work.
Managing director of economic crime at UK Finance Katy Worobeck, commented on the impact the pandemic has had on the rise of money mulling.
"Criminals are cruelly preying on 'Generation Covid' and those struggling to find work at this difficult time, by using fake job adverts online to recruit people as money mules."
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The criminals will typically post adverts on legitimate jobs websites or social media, using terms such as money transfer agents or local processors to recruit people to launder the profits of their crimes.
Additionally, criminals may infiltrate popular groups and post images showing off a luxury lifestyle such as large quantities of cash to entice young people. Increasingly, money mule recruiters are making use of heavily encrypted instant messaging services to avoid detection.
In response to the increasing effectiveness of criminals to remain invisible, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a specialist police force is working with social media companies to take down accounts.
So far, 732 accounts linked to fraudulent activity, of which 258 were involved in recruiting money mules have been removed.
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The Don't be Fooled' campaign accompanied by a video has been launched by Cifas and UK finance, urging young people to take certain actions to minimise the risk of becoming a mule.
These include not responding to adverts offering large sums of money for minimal effort, and being wary of job ads that are written in poor English with spelling mistakes.
UK Finance and Cifas are also calling for fraud and economic crime to be included in the upcoming Online Safety Bill.
Introducing fraud and economic crime in the bill would make online platforms responsible for taking down fraudulent content. For example, social media posts used to recruit people as money mules.
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