Lately, there has been a steep rise in the cases of individuals being used to transfer money obtained illegally (money mules) to third party accounts, usually to other countries. This activity facilitates the legalization of funds or goods that have been obtained illegally, as well as their transportation worldwide.
Data from international police authorities prove this suspicion. According to Europol, 90% of these illegal transactions are linked to cybercrimes. Illegal money often originates from criminal activities, such as phishing, malware use, cyber attacks, Internet auction frauds or online shopping scams, card frauds and other types of crimes.
When criminals get hold of illegal money or goods, they draft individuals who are willing to transfer them into their accounts by promising them easy and “legal” money, through fraudulent websites or notifications that extract personal data and passwords.
Consumers should be aware that these activities are illegal, and that charges may be brought against them. For this reason, they must be very careful when it comes to online advertisements, advertisements through social media or to text messages with spelling errors or promising fast profit.
In order to receive information on how you can protect yourselves from such illegal activities, you can visit the Cyber Alert, as well as the Europol webpages.
In the event that you are unintentionally involved or fall victim of such fraudulent activities that use or implicate NBG’s name or logo in any way, please contact us and report the incident.