The recruitment of muleteers is the order of the day

The recruitment of muleteers continues to be the order of the day, even contacting possible interested parties through messages sent to their mobile phones. This profile, considered by many to be the last link, as they are the most exposed to police operations, are a fundamental piece in many criminal campaigns.

And it is that, despite the fact that criminals have found in cryptocurrencies an effective way to make it difficult to track the money obtained from criminal activities, there are still cybercriminals who require intermediaries to make it difficult to trace the bank transfers they make from, for example, , the accounts of the victims.

This is demonstrated by Josep Albors, director of research and awareness of ESET Spain, with his complete analysis of the new scam.

Recruitment of muleteers

Normally, these muleteers were recruited through false advertisements or job offers sent by email promising to earn significant amounts of money in exchange for a comfortable job, done from home and that only required having a bank account and an Internet connection.

Today, these advertisements continue to be produced, although criminals are also evolving and campaigns are already being observed that send these job offers directly to users’ mobile phones indiscriminately.

We can check it in the following message recently sent to a user through Apple’s iMessage service.

Without looking at the message, we can see how the company that is making the supposed contract is not mentioned, but the amount of money offered is indicated, an amount that is not negligible for most users. In addition, we see how a telephone number is provided to contact them, a number that, due to the initial code, would be registered in the United States.

It is likely that, in the event that someone contacts that number after receiving this message, criminals try to give an image of a completely legal company, and even provide supposed contracts to gain the trust of the user.

Criminals continue to try to attract muleteers promising easy money

The reality, however, is that, in the case of accepting this type of job offer, the user would be collaborating with criminals in the illicit transfer of money obtained from criminal activities.

police alert

The fact that criminals are sending messages of this type indiscriminately and directly to users’ mobile phones may be an indicator of the money they are managing to steal from their victims and, therefore, of the need to have people who are capable to receive it so that later they can send it back to you.

Many times they look for muleteers who reside or have a bank account in the same country as the victims.

In fact, due to the interest of criminals in continuing to recruit muleteers, the National Police and the Civil Guard have echoed these recruitment campaigns, in order to prevent unsuspecting users from falling into the trap of criminals and end up committing a crime. without knowing it.

For the above reasons, it is important that we remind our relatives and strangers that, in the event of receiving a message like the one we have described, or any other job offer that is too good to be true and, above all, unsolicited, they discard it immediately. .