money mule

We all know the term mule in relation to drugs trafficking. This is the person who is paid to act as a drug courier.  The money mule is paid to transfer money rather than drugs.  Often this is set up to appear to be part of a company’s business. The money mule is supposedly a paid employee of the company handling the transaction from the company in one country to their account in another.  Sometimes the money transfer is presented as help to someone in need and so the person contacted to do the transfer, usually on social media, is doing it out of the goodness of their heart.  But the money being transferred is acquired from scams and being transferred to the overseas bank account of the scammer.  There is legislation being prepared to force the banks to be accountable for money mule accounts set up with them.