--- title: Young Job Seekers Are Falling Victim to a ‘Money Mule’ Scam description: Federal agencies are warning people seeking summer jobs and remote work about "money mules" scams that could result in identify theft. authors: - name: Pete Grieve role: Lead News Reporter url: https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/ bio: Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. In his time at Money, Pete has covered everything from car buying to credit cards to the housing market. education: University of Chicago, BA Political Science at_money_since: 2022 articles: 600 covers: - Identity Theft - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://twitter.com/pete_grieve - https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138 - https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4 editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Identity Theft - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2024-05-16T12:00:08.000Z' section: Identity Theft tags: - News word_count: 532 canonical: https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo Collage of a keyboard and a computer mouse surrounded by dollar bills and crypto coins](https://img.money.com/2024/05/News-Job-Scams-Money-Mules.jpg) As young people go out looking for work this summer, government agencies want them to be aware of the risks of “money mule” fraud schemes. Money mules are people who are used to transfer stolen money for another person or a group. The government is particularly worried about students and other people looking for online remote work potentially being involved, often without the knowledge a crime is happening. In a [consumer advisory warning](https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8908-24), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said these scams “involve individuals sending and receiving money into their bank accounts, digital wallets, or spot-market crypto trading accounts as part of their job duties or at the direction of others.” Fraudsters who need to shuffle around illicit funds often exploit the accounts of young job seekers to bypass detection by law enforcement, according to the CFTC. Examples of common fraud schemes producing these funds include lottery fraud, romance scams and grandparent scams, officials say. It's possible to unknowingly becoming involved in these scams if you're tricked into lending a bank account or cryptocurrency wallet to criminals. All of a sudden, you're participating in money laundering. People who are duped into getting involved can also become [identity theft](https://money.com/what-is-identity-theft/) victims, the government warns. ## Having your identity stolen may come at a high cost ### With Aura in your corner, you'll have the proper software to protect your every online move. Nowadays, we all need Identity Theft Protection. Find yours by clicking on your state below. [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/gd041a90dab2?ap_referrer=%2Fmoney-mule-scam-young-job-seekers%2F) ## Watch out for 'money mule' scams The involved agencies are warning people to avoid engaging with anyone you encounter online who asks you to move money around as part of a remote work offer. Also look out for requests asking you to set up banks accounts or convert [crypto](https://money.com/what-is-cryptocurrency/) to cash (or vice versa). “Young people looking for summer jobs may be just looking for part-time income and could be attracted to offers that require being online a few hours a day,” Melanie Devoe, director of the CFTC’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach said in a release. “Unfortunately, they could become unwitting accomplices to money laundering or what the criminals call ‘money mules,’ and that association could land them in jail.” Individuals who move money for criminals can face charges themselves, the government cautions. Law enforcement agencies “took action to stop over 3,000 money mules responsible for facilitating a range of fraud schemes” in the past year, according to a Friday [release from the Justice Department](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-law-enforcement-takes-action-against-more-3000-money-mules-initiative-disrupt). In most of these cases, people received warning letters because they likely became involved on accident, but criminal charges were brought against over 20 people who were more serious offenders and allegedly knew what they were doing. For example, a case out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri involved the recruitment of college students to receive payment from elderly victims of a tech fraud scam. Three people who orchestrated it were charged after allegedly making bank deposits of around $7 million in cashier’s checks related to the scam over a three-year period. The government agencies working to stop these types of scams encourage people with information to call the Justice Department's fraud hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11 or make a complaint to the [FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center](https://www.ic3.gov/). ## Fraudsters are scamming people and stealing their money. Make sure that you're protected! ### Aura offers proactive monitoring and fraud prevention to safeguard your policy. Click below to get started today. [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/p41928ebc7eb?ap_referrer=%2Fmoney-mule-scam-young-job-seekers%2F) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/29035/medium_031b14e8-19d0-4ec7-b6f0-04e29d54e75a.png) Protect yourself from the threat of Identity Theft with Aura [View Plans](https://money.com/pr/ce5c60e9ca63?ap_referrer=%2Fmoney-mule-scam-young-job-seekers%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Identity Theft", "item": "https://money.com/identity-theft/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Scams", "item": "https://money.com/scams/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Young Job Seekers Are Falling Victim to a ‘Money Mule’ Scam" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/", "name": "Young Job Seekers Are Falling Victim to a ‘Money Mule’ Scam", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-05-16T12:00:08.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Young Job Seekers Are Falling Victim to a ‘Money Mule’ Scam", "articleSection": "Identity Theft", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/05/News-Job-Scams-Money-Mules.jpg", "width": 1901, "height": 1267, "caption": "News-Job-Scams-Money-Mules" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Pete Grieve", "url": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/pete-grieve/#author", "description": "Pete Grieve is a personal finance reporter. In his time at Money, Pete has covered everything from car buying to credit cards to the housing market.", "image": "https://img.money.com/2023/02/peter.png?w=350&h=430&crop=1", "email": "peter.grieve@money.com", "jobTitle": "Lead News Reporter", "alumniOf": "University of Chicago, BA Political Science", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/pete_grieve", "https://linkedin.com/in/pete-grieve-b5aa02138", "https://www.facebook.com/petegrieve4" ], "worksFor": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2024-05-16T12:00:08.000Z", "description": "Federal agencies are warning people seeking summer jobs and remote work about \"money mules\" scams that could result in identify theft.", "abstract": "Federal agencies are warning people seeking summer jobs and remote work about \"money mules\" scams that could result in identify theft.", "@id": "https://money.com/money-mule-scam-young-job-seekers/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "editor": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "wordCount": 532, "keywords": [ "News" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Identity theft", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_theft" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Scam", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scam" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Jobs", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs" ] } ] } ] } ```