The murky world of money mules and how they fuel India’s Rs 2,500 crore fraud economy
Nov 22, 2024
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Dheeraj Gupta, Co-founder of M-Filterit, shares his expertise in online financial fraud detection. He discusses the alarming rise of digital fraud and the emerging 'Mule-as-a-service' model that empowers cybercriminals. Ordinary people, often from low-income backgrounds, are unwittingly drawn into this dangerous scheme. Gupta also highlights the challenges faced by regulators and law enforcement as they try to combat this sophisticated network, emphasizing the need for innovative solutions to keep pace with evolving tactics.
The rise of Mule-as-a-service has enabled cybercriminals to operate sophisticated fraud schemes by recruiting ordinary individuals unaware of the illegal implications.
Money mules, often from low-income backgrounds, play a crucial role in the fraud economy by facilitating fund transfers that conceal criminal identities.
Deep dives
The Rise of Money Mules
Maan, a mechanic from a small farming family, was introduced to a Telegram group that promised easy money through transferring funds. Initially skeptical, he found the process simple, earning small amounts that gradually hooked him into the scheme. Unbeknownst to him, he became a money mule, facilitating illegal transactions while receiving a small cut for his participation. As he learned more about the risks involved, particularly after a friend's account was blacklisted, Maan began to realize the murky nature of the operations he had joined.
Understanding Money Mule Operations
Money mules act as intermediaries for cyber criminals, often without realizing their illegal involvement, and are commonly drawn from low-income backgrounds looking for quick financial relief. These mules help in transferring funds from victims' accounts to conceal the criminals' identities, effectively enabling crimes such as phishing, online gambling, and ransom payments. The podcast highlights how these schemes often operate through a referral system, where new recruits like Maan are introduced by more experienced mules, creating a multi-tier pyramid structure within the illegal trade. This setup allows for the systematic movement of large sums of money, which, according to reports, can amount to over 2,500 crore rupees per month, with only a small fraction being recovered by law enforcement.
The Evolution of Digital Fraud
Digital fraud has evolved into a highly organized crime, leveraging personalized approaches to deceive unsuspecting victims. Fraudsters utilize advanced technologies, including AI and cryptocurrency, making it harder for law enforcement to track illicit funds and identify perpetrators. As discussed in the podcast, criminals adapt quickly to regulatory measures, employing methods such as mule-as-a-service to rotate their operations and evade detection. With ongoing challenges, authorities are struggling to keep pace with these rapid changes, highlighting the need for innovative solutions to combat this burgeoning fraud landscape.
The world of cyber fraud has gotten even murkier thanks to a slick new tech service that is streamlining fraud for scammers and making them even harder to track down. This new concept is called ‘Mule-as-a-service’ or MaaS. It’s kind of like a plug-and-play fraud tech where service providers are able to deploy an army of mules on behalf of cybercriminals. These mules are people who lend their bank accounts to move dirty money for cybercriminals. The scary thing is this mule network is getting smarter about leaving no money trail for authorities to follow.
More often than not, these mules are ordinary people from low income groups who sign up to make a quick buck, without realising just how dangerous the whole business is.
Daybreak hosts Snigdha and Rahel are joined by The Ken reporter Rounak Kumar Gunjan and Dhiraj Gupta, co-founder of the fraud-protection firm MfilterIt, about how this network works and why regulators have been struggling to keep up.
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Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. Subscribe for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.
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