Imagine you’re a migrant recently landed in Australia. You’re excited about what opportunities this great country has in store for you. But it soon becomes clear that without local experience it’s not easy to find work, and it’s an expensive place to live too.
Many new arrivals find themselves in this position – short of cash and needing to pay the bills - and that’s where scammers lie in wait ready to prey on the vulnerable.
We’re increasingly seeing migrants to Australia being duped into acting as money mules for bad actors.
Money mules are used by criminal gangs to move funds or clean the dirty money they've obtained via criminal activities such as drugs, human trafficking or fraud and scams. It gives them an opportunity to create a distance between themselves and the crime.
These criminals don’t only target the migrant community, but the social and financial pressures often faced by new arrivals to the country, including international students, mean they are more vulnerable to offers of an easy way to make money while staying in Australia.
In most cases, the criminal will post an ad on social media offering attractive rates of pay for a few hours of online work. They may ask to use your bank account to transfer some funds and will pay you a fee for helping them out.
Most of the time, the people acting as mules think they are performing a legitimate employment task. They are unaware that they are participating in criminal activity which could potentially end them up in prison, if convicted.
Westpac is taking steps to stop this happening, but we also need individuals to be vigilant.
To avoid falling into the money mule trap, there are a few things to remember:
- Be wary of any unsolicited offer to make quick money.
- Never hand over control of your accounts and personal information such as username and password, any one-time-passcodes, or card and identity details to someone else.
- Don’t open accounts with multiple banks as part of your so-called ‘employment’. If you’re being paid to receive and move funds, you are most likely being used as a mule.
- Do a background check on the company offering you a job to verify they are a legitimate operation.
- Check that the funds coming into your account match the employer or company name.
And remember: if a job offer requires no prior experience and has a very quick hiring process, it’s likely too good to be true.
This Scam Spot video is also available to watch in Hindi and Mandarin.
Ben Young is Westpac’s Head of Fraud Prevention. Ben’s team researches and operates Westpac’s key fraud protection processes for the ~25 million transactions processed each day by the bank, particularly around credit cards, internet banking, branch and applications for credit. Ben has been intimately involved in Westpac’s anti-fraud processes since 2007 and has worked in various data led risk processes since 1997.
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