04.12.2023 Bulgarian Development Bank joins the ninth campaign against "financial mules"

The Bulgarian Development Bank joins the campaign of the European Cybercrime Centre of Europol against money laundering and recruitment of financial "mules". The campaign is in its ninth year and involves financial institutions and law enforcement agencies from 26 countries.

A financial "mule" is a person who transfers illegally obtained funds between different bank accounts, often in different countries, receiving a commission for this activity. According to Europol statistics, in 95% of cases "financial mules" are used to absorb illegally transferred funds acquired from previous cyber crimes - for example online and phone fraud, e-commerce fraud, SIM card swapping, etc.

Europol data show that 10,759 "financial mules" and 474 recruiters have been identified this year - double the number from last year, with law enforcement work leading to the arrests of 1,013 individuals.  During the campaign, 4,659 investigations were initiated. Over 2,800 banks and other financial institutions and IT companies helped report more than 10,736 fraudulent transactions resulting in losses of €100 million involving "financial mules", preventing €32 million in damage.

There will be 102 victims of this type of criminal activity in Bulgaria in 2023, which is three times more than the previous year. With the help of the country's banks, 358 illegal transactions have been detected - more than triple the number of last year, with over 100 thousand euro worth of damage prevented.

Various schemes are used to recruit "financial mules", for example dating sites where criminals try to convince their victims to open bank accounts to send or receive funds. Scams exist through social media posts containing enticing job offers promising easy riches.

It is important to know that even if the persons used as "financial mules" were not aware that they were involved in illegal money laundering activities, they are committing a crime by transferring funds and this can have serious consequences for them.

The banking sector in Bulgaria supports the efforts of law enforcement authorities and actively cooperates with them in the prevention and detection of financial crimes related to money laundering. Banks have strict rules and requirements to identify their customers, which is why they are trusted by users of financial services.