Phishers Luring Mules into Money Scams
Phishers are using middlemen to receive funds from defrauded bank accounts and then transfer the money on to the phishers. In one case, these mules were arrested by Dutch authorities for their participation in what sounds like a run-of-the-mill phishing scam:
According to reports, the fraudsters, based in Russia and Ukraine, set up bogus ABN Amro websites to lure the bank's customers and harvest their security details - information which was used to access their accounts and steal money.
The same article goes on to say that phishers are trying to get unwitting mules to do some of the dirty work:
Sophos experts note that there is a growing trend among cybercriminals to try and recruit ordinary people to help them move their illegal profits around the world. This month, SophosLabs detected an unusual 419 email scam which, instead of offering the typical promise of grant, lottery or prize money, purported to come from the American Red Cross and offered the recipient a job as a 'donation collector', accepting and shipping donations to people in need for various EU projects.
This isn't as blatant as promising big returns for fronting money to an alleged Nigerian exile who will richly reward you in return for a small investment today, but it's in the ball park. How many times have you received an email with a job offer and how many of those would you seriously consider? Scams don't change much, it's only the sugar coating that comes with them that seems to vary.
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