Hackers Target the Unemployed as Money Mules

Christine Palmer thought his luck had finally changed. After spending months unemployed and living on Social Security in February sent a CV to CS Office Services, a company that helps businesses realize other offices. A human resources employee called to say that the job was hers: a flexible job that paid for the project and that was to help process transactions. On 3 March, after weeks of online training, got up and found that he had deposited $ 98,000 into your Bank of America. In an e told her to withdraw $ 9 000, send it to Ukraine via Western Union and transfer the remaining funds to a bank account in Ukrainian bank. Palmer could keep $ 1,800 of the total. While I was finishing up the transfer, a man called Eastern European accent who identified himself as the manager and asked him to hurry. "It sounded very worried and thought I would lose my job," says Palmer.
It was only a few days after Palmer realized that CS Office Services does not exist and that the "manager" was probably a member of a Ukrainian criminal organization. He realized this when on March 7, received a call from Bank of America in which he said they had arrested the international transfer because the funds were stolen. They told Palmer that he was responsible for paying the $ 9 billion that was withdrawn and sent.
Organized crime, common in Eastern Europe and Russia, has created one of the most lucrative cyber world defraud online banking networks in the amount of up to U.S. $ one billion a year. These organizations use computer viruses to steal online banking passwords (usually small companies that have less security systems) and then transferred large sums to accounts they control. However, there is a problem. Taking money out of countries is difficult because banks carefully monitor international transfers.
But the solution is in the U.S.. Overseas criminals have engaged recently to hire Americans and Palmer to make bank mule, that is, to make transfers and send the money to the criminals. This is a serious crime, so the foreign gangsters make use of various tricks to convince the mules that they are working for a real business. "We can not blame these people," said Avivah Litan, vice president of Gartner Research. "If you're desperate and it appears that ... it is a job." Mules are not prosecuted if found to have been deceived. On the other hand, criminals are generally outside the jurisdiction of U.S. authorities. "It's the modern version of Bonnie and Clyed" said Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director.