Young people duped into letting fraudsters transfer cash through their accounts face being convicted as money launderers after banks called for harsher penalties.
The Joint Fraud Taskforce, which comprises banks, phone companies and police, said in a report that it wanted to increase “the effectiveness of deterrents for identified money mules” to stop them “facilitating fraud”.
Young people are often recruited in online chat rooms, at school gates and on university campuses and are frequently tricked into receiving the cash after being led to believe the onward transfer is simply a favour.
In some circumstances they are duped into thinking they are working for a company making bank transfers and receive a small fee in exchange.
In reality, the money mules are receiving cash from
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