Rich quick scheme
Discussion
Not sure if this belongs here but here goes....
I work with young people who use drugs (try and help them get on the straight and narrow). Anyway one of my genius youngsters has been persuaded to allow his bank account to be used for deposits (a few thousand at a time). He's then instructed to withdraw the maximum in cash from the ATM and give it to them. He then gets a little kick back for his trouble. So low and behold his account has been frozen for suspicious activities and he can't open another account with anyone else (I'm guessing he's been flagged?)
So my question is, what is the scam (how is it likely to work before the cash gets to him) and how much trouble is he in?
I work with young people who use drugs (try and help them get on the straight and narrow). Anyway one of my genius youngsters has been persuaded to allow his bank account to be used for deposits (a few thousand at a time). He's then instructed to withdraw the maximum in cash from the ATM and give it to them. He then gets a little kick back for his trouble. So low and behold his account has been frozen for suspicious activities and he can't open another account with anyone else (I'm guessing he's been flagged?)
So my question is, what is the scam (how is it likely to work before the cash gets to him) and how much trouble is he in?
How is the money getting deposited initially?
He’s basically involved in money laundering st the moment, at a guess the money is getting transferred in from hacked/stolen account details.
Advice would be to come clean as quickly as possible, he’ll probably have to name his ‘friends’ and plead extreme naivety to have any chance of getting away with it.
Not a good situation to be in unfortunately.
He’s basically involved in money laundering st the moment, at a guess the money is getting transferred in from hacked/stolen account details.
Advice would be to come clean as quickly as possible, he’ll probably have to name his ‘friends’ and plead extreme naivety to have any chance of getting away with it.
Not a good situation to be in unfortunately.
ked.It’s a very common thing to happen to young vulnerable people unfortunately.
There will be a boiler room situation going on somewhere where people are getting people’s account details and transferring the money or they will be conning people into transferring money into that account for fictional eBay purchases, sales of fictional cars or worse intimidating elderly people to transfer money.
They obviously don’t want to go to the bank to withdraw it so this is where this situation comes into play.
Banks are pretty clued up to the signs so once the large transfers and instant cash withdrawals start appearing it’s a big red flag.
I understand what you’re saying about him not wanting to ‘grass up’ those involved but without giving a defence of ‘the bad men made me do it and I didn’t know what was going on’ he’s going to end up being held accountable for the full cycle of the money laundering process. What that looks like is anyone’s guess but none of them will be particularly good.
If you’re working with these vulnerable youths might be worth having an educational session on the dangers of this. At least that may prevent any future instances.
Has he had any contact from the bank and if so what has been said?
There will be a boiler room situation going on somewhere where people are getting people’s account details and transferring the money or they will be conning people into transferring money into that account for fictional eBay purchases, sales of fictional cars or worse intimidating elderly people to transfer money.
They obviously don’t want to go to the bank to withdraw it so this is where this situation comes into play.
Banks are pretty clued up to the signs so once the large transfers and instant cash withdrawals start appearing it’s a big red flag.
I understand what you’re saying about him not wanting to ‘grass up’ those involved but without giving a defence of ‘the bad men made me do it and I didn’t know what was going on’ he’s going to end up being held accountable for the full cycle of the money laundering process. What that looks like is anyone’s guess but none of them will be particularly good.
If you’re working with these vulnerable youths might be worth having an educational session on the dangers of this. At least that may prevent any future instances.
Has he had any contact from the bank and if so what has been said?
Most likely he has been used as a mule to 'cashout' fraudulent funds.
He'll probably get a CIFAS flag loaded against him which will mean he'll struggle to get another bank account. You probably don't have to worry about the police coming for him, there are thousands of mule accounts closed every day, unless the police are investigating the 'higher ups' they're unlikely to get involved with someone that low down the chain. It will most likely be reported to action fraud, which does feed into police intelligence, but probably not used.
Gangs use vulnerable/stupid people all the time, those people are then excluded from banking, making them even more ostracised from society (you might struggle to get a normal job if you don't have a bank account to get paid into).
He'll probably get a CIFAS flag loaded against him which will mean he'll struggle to get another bank account. You probably don't have to worry about the police coming for him, there are thousands of mule accounts closed every day, unless the police are investigating the 'higher ups' they're unlikely to get involved with someone that low down the chain. It will most likely be reported to action fraud, which does feed into police intelligence, but probably not used.
Gangs use vulnerable/stupid people all the time, those people are then excluded from banking, making them even more ostracised from society (you might struggle to get a normal job if you don't have a bank account to get paid into).
Greshamst said:
Most likely he has been used as a mule to 'cashout' fraudulent funds.
He'll probably get a CIFAS flag loaded against him which will mean he'll struggle to get another bank account. You probably don't have to worry about the police coming for him, there are thousands of mule accounts closed every day, unless the police are investigating the 'higher ups' they're unlikely to get involved with someone that low down the chain. It will most likely be reported to action fraud, which does feed into police intelligence, but probably not used.
Gangs use vulnerable/stupid people all the time, those people are then excluded from banking, making them even more ostracised from society (you might struggle to get a normal job if you don't have a bank account to get paid into).
OK, great, that's actually quite helpful.He'll probably get a CIFAS flag loaded against him which will mean he'll struggle to get another bank account. You probably don't have to worry about the police coming for him, there are thousands of mule accounts closed every day, unless the police are investigating the 'higher ups' they're unlikely to get involved with someone that low down the chain. It will most likely be reported to action fraud, which does feed into police intelligence, but probably not used.
Gangs use vulnerable/stupid people all the time, those people are then excluded from banking, making them even more ostracised from society (you might struggle to get a normal job if you don't have a bank account to get paid into).
Thank you.
So I met with the lad yesterday and he confirmed that they transferred £7k into his account and managed to get £3500 out before the bank froze the acc. He's been into the bank and been told by the fraud dept. that the account will be closed, the money confiscated and he'll have no further action taken against him. Likelihood is that they saw him for the naive numpty he is and took pity on him. He's now struggling to get another account opened with another bank.
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