The FBI says scam artists are taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak to launder ill-gotten gains by accessing your personal and financial information and then using you to move the money for them.
"It's not easy for criminals to move their ill-gotten money around without attracting the attention of law enforcement, so they actively recruit other people to be money mules," said Steven Merrill, head of the FBI’s Financial Crimes Section."Money mules allow criminals to mask their identities, move money across country lines and avoid arousing the suspicions of financial institutions.
Several years ago, the FBI surveyed more than 300 people who had been conned into transferring money for criminals, looking for a common thread among the victims. What they found was that work-from-home schemes, along with dating sites, were behind many of the cases but that the victims themselves spanned every race, gender and age demographic. In other words, nobody was immune from being targeted.
People claiming to be U.S. service members stationed overseas who ask you to send or receive money on behalf of themselves or a loved one battling COVID-19.
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