Modern-day online scams seem to revolve around one thing. Money.

It used to be about tagging a website with your group's name, defacing a webpage, or just making your friend's CD drive open up randomly using a scheduled task.

But once people realized you could take advantage of others online, social engineer them.

and then profit, things changed. And nothing has been better at stealing banking credentials,

security questions, and any other private data you might have than Zeus. These credentials were

then used to make money transfers, make unauthorized purchases, and steal funds from

companies and individuals. While I was going to talk about the Zeus botnet today, Jack Reciter

from the Darknet Diaries podcast actually has a great episode on it already, which I'll link down

below. But there's something every scam needs, including the Zeus botnet, and that's a money

mule. From transferring funds for a stranger to repackaging gifts on this episode of In the Shell.

Attack at one of the nation's busiest airports. A cybersecurity firm, CrowdStrike, has caused this

outage. That it takes you longer to do something by putting it into a computer and calling it up

again than if you just kept simple records yourself in the house. Let's first talk about what the issue

is. Now when a scammer gets your banking credentials, they can't just do a bank transfer into their own

account. When the theft eventually gets reported and tracked, that would lead the investigators

directly to them. Instead, they need an intermediary, and that's where the money mule comes in.

A money mule is like a VPN for bank transfers. What happens is once the scammer gets credentials

to an account, or they have their target on the phone logged into an account, they need a place to

transfer the funds unrelated to them. This is the point where they use a money mule's account details

and transfer the money there. Once the money has been deposited into the mule's account,

the money mule is then instructed by the scammer to transfer the funds, in some cases minus a certain

percentage that the money mule gets to keep, to a different account. And this next account could be

another money mule account, or some other overseas account the scammer has access to, and they're able

to withdraw the funds. Now you're probably wondering why someone would do this. Getting to keep a cut of

the funds is a nice motivation, but sometimes these individuals don't even know they are helping to

launder money. You can break it down into three main types of money mules. The first is unwitting

or unknowing money mules, and there's a couple ways these victims get targeted. Scammers need to

recruit money mules, and one way they do this is through job postings. It's not something as obvious

as money mule needed, it's subtle with a touch of social engineering and ambiguity. Typically, these jobs

will be marked as work from home with a title of payment processing assistant. No skills, degrees,

or anything else required. All communication will usually take place over a free web service

like gmail or hotmail. The scammer makes sure to let you know that all you need to do is transfer some

funds, and you can keep a portion of the money. That's it, very low effort, and you get paid.

To a lot of people who are looking for a job or quick money, this sounds great. Especially when

it's presented in a way that you are simply helping to move money. And when it's presented

in those terms, it's easy to wonder, what's so illegal about that? And unfortunately, this is

how a lot of people get tied up in it. And just keep in mind, from the outside looking in, it's easy

to say, what an idiot, how could they fall for this? But it can happen to anyone, so don't be too

quick to judge. Besides a job posting, it's also popular for scammers to lure a potential mule in

with a romance scam, sweet-talking them, telling them what they want to hear, preying on a recent

divorcee, and then making a small request for help transferring money for a business they are starting

or for some other genuine sounding situation. The scammer will typically

pick-

Police say they are out of the country and can't do it themselves, and all they need is a little help from you.

They are not asking you for any money, which makes it less suspicious.

They just want help moving their own money.

The victim is motivated by the trust and the actual existence of this other persona they've been led to believe exists.

Here's a clip of a woman named Christina and what happened to her.

She was recently divorced and she loved what she was hearing from him.

While never meeting in person through constant emails, text messages, and phone calls.

You fell in love?

Christina says she fell in love.

He said he was too.

But you, I mean, really, you felt in love.

Absolutely.

Which, you know, I never believed that that could happen, right?

And after a while, the two began talking about their future.

The man told Christina that he wanted to start a business.

From here, that relationship became much more financial.

So I've saved everything because like I said, Christina says her online love claimed that he

had investors lined up. So she opened some bank accounts and began taking deposits. And she says

at his direction, she wired money to pay for things like a building and restaurant equipment.

Or so she thought. Oh, we had to write a check to open the account. Christina showed us the huge

amount of checks and wires that passed through her accounts. Three or $4,000 here, $14,000 there.

Some amounts as high as 50 grand, totaling up to maybe a million. You had a million dollars go

through your bank account? I think, yeah. The next type is a witting money mule. This person could

have been lured in the same manner as the previous, but they are intentionally ignoring red flags.

They may have been warned by a bank employee that they were involved in fraudulent activity.

And while they might have been unwitting at

First, they now continue to communicate and participate despite the warnings from others.

And this is what happened to 81-year-old Glenda.

My name is Glenda, and I'm 81 years old.

In 2014, I met the love of my life online, and he told me that he was a U.S. citizen and was working in Nigeria.

He asked me for money to help with his business and help leave Nigeria.

Since 2015, bank employees, local police officers, and federal agents told me that my love was a scam and that I needed to stop or I could go to jail.

I didn't listen to anyone else but my love, the love I've never seen nor spoken to.

And that leads us to the third type, the complicit money mule.

These individuals are aware of their role and actively participate.

They are motivated by financial gain or loyalty to a criminal group.

It's not a question of if, but when these transactions get reported and investigated.

And what ends up happening is that the mule is the person that the initial theft will get tied back to.

The scammer took additional steps to hide their identity and to use an unknowing person.

But when the charges are filed, they'll be against the money mule.

These charges can include mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.

They'll also be held liable for repaying money lost by victims, even though they weren't the one running the scam.

Another popular way scammers will have victims convert stolen funds is to use a Bitcoin ATM.

The money mule will receive the bank transfer, use a Bitcoin ATM to convert the funds to Bitcoin.

and send it to the scammers. The scammer will guide the victim through the process,

tell them where to go, and how to do it step by step. It's just one more way the scammer will

hide their tracks and the mule will be on the hook for everything. In addition to using the

mule's existing personal bank accounts, the scammer will also have them open up other bank accounts

and their victim's name. The victim will then send the scammer all the details along with the online

login credentials. That way the scammer has full access to it and can use it how they please.

In those scenarios, the mules are typically paid a flat fee for each account they open.

The more you dig, the deeper it goes. Besides directly transferring money into a mule's account,

the scammer will also request that they help them pawn electronics and other high value items they

send them. Here's Glenda again, explaining what she did. Then my love had

People send me electronics, like cell phones, so I could pawn them and send him the money.

These electronics are typically stolen items or items purchased with a stolen credit card.

The scammer then needs an easy way to turn it into cash, and using the mule is perfect for that.

In an article on KrebsOnSecurity.com, he covered another scenario where the scammers had installed

software on the mule's computer to monitor them. Here's a transcript of a few calls between a

scammer and a money mule.

Here's the scammer.

Hi, there's a new task ready for you to process.

Please go to your bank now and withdraw $4,933, keeping 8%, $399 minus wire fees, and split

the money into Western Union payments to the pay listed in the file we sent you earlier.

The money mule.

Okay, I'm going now.

Five minutes later, the scammer.

Scammer calls again, hey why aren't you on your way to the bank? The money mule, I am. The scammer,

no you are not, you are sitting there in front of your computer checking your fantasy sports team

scores. Get off your butt and get down to the bank now. Now besides the direct transfer of funds or

pawning of goods, there's another type of scam that I think is even tougher to catch on to.

This one still falls under a mule scam, but it's called parcel mule or reshipping scam.

Since the goods are usually resold after being shipped, this scheme can be seen as a form of

indirect money laundering. The parcel mule scam tricks victims into receiving packages,

often containing high value items like electronics or designer goods, purchased fraudulently using

stolen credit cards or counterfeit methods. Again, victims are lured through fake job offers or scams

like online.

romance and are instructed to repackage and forward these goods to other addresses,

obscuring the scammers trail. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Ashley when

she took up a job offer she got in an email. Ashley Howell answered an email to be a package

shipper, but she had no idea what she was getting into. So I got an email to my personal email

address talking about if I would like to work for a company affiliated with the United States Postal

Service. They weren't asking for my social security number. That's why I thought, okay,

this might be legitimate. It all started when the Mobile County Sheriff's Office got a call from a

North Alabama man saying his credit card number had been stolen and used on QVC. QVC had told the

man that the item purchased by his card was being shipped here to Mobile County. And that's how

Detective Laura Soulier found Ashley.

I said, why are you getting these packages? And she said, well, it's my job.

When she told me that it was stolen property that I was receiving, that they had registered in my name by somebody's stolen bank account cards, I was shocked.

Howell also got an email from these same people wanting to promote her to transfer money.

If she had accepted that job, she would have been charged with money laundering, which is a federal offense.

The scammer may also disguise the business as an online gift wrapping service, where the victim is simply wrapping presents for a third party.

Scammers need a way to move money, and using unsuspecting, vulnerable, desperate individuals is how they do it.

The ones that typically end up facing the consequences are the money mules, not the scammers conducting the operations, who are benefiting the most from the scams.

Yes, scammers.

Some people knowingly get involved to make some money, but most do not.

Glenda Seam, the 81-year-old from earlier, was sentenced to three years probation

and ordered to pay restitutions for her part.

So take this as a reminder to reach out to those close to you,

especially anyone older you might know, and make them aware that these kind of scams exist.

It doesn't take much to fall into one, and if you do, you can lose everything.

In the Shell is written, researched, and recorded by me, the Reshipper.

Please share this episode with someone you think would enjoy it,

or someone you think needs to know these types of scams exist.

I would truly appreciate it.

That's it. Take care, and I'll see you next time.