Actions Taken Against 2,300 ‘Money Mules’ in Annual Initiative

Federal law enforcement has taken action to halt the conduct of over 2,300 “money mules” in the last two months, the Department of Justice recently announced. These actions occurred in every state in the country as part of the third annual Money Mule Initiative. This year’s effort almost quadrupled the 600 actions U.S. law enforcement took last year against money mules.

Money mules are individuals who knowingly or unknowingly assist fraudsters by receiving money from victims of fraud and forwarding it to the fraud organizers, many of whom are located abroad.

Attorney General William P. Barr said of money mules, “Money mules fuel fraud against some of America’s most vulnerable populations. Without the help of these money mules, many foreign fraud enterprises find it difficult to profit off of U.S. victims. As this initiative demonstrates, the Department of Justice is committed to disrupting money mule networks, taking actions against more money mules this year than ever before, in an effort to cut off the flow of funds from American consumers and businesses to transnational criminal organizations.”

The schemes targeted by this year’s Money Mule Initiative included lottery fraud, romance scams, government imposter fraud, business e-mail compromise or CEO fraud, and unemployment insurance fraud. Many of these schemes target elderly or vulnerable members of society.

The Department of Justice’s extensive efforts to combat elder fraud seek to halt the billions of dollars seniors lose each year to fraud schemes, including those perpetrated by transnational criminal organizations. However, “[t]he best method for prevention,” the DOJ said in its announcement, “is sharing information about the various types of elder fraud schemes with relatives, friends, neighbors, and other seniors who can use that information to protect themselves.”

The agencies participating in the Money Mule Initiative and community partners are undertaking an outreach campaign to increase awareness of how fraudsters use and recruit money mules. The DOJ said U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country, through their Elder Justice Coordinators, will be reaching out to their communities to educate the public about money mules. AmeriCorp Seniors also will be working to increase awareness of how money mules facilitate fraud and how consumers can avoid unwittingly assisting fraud schemes.

Eight federal law enforcement agencies participated in this year’s initiative. Led by the Department of Justice’s Consumer Protection Branch, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the participating agencies include the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of Inspector General, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

On December 2, the same day as the Department of Justice’s announcement, Europol announced a simultaneous effort.