The banking industry continues to see an increase in scams with Scamwatch recording more than $450 million lost to scams during 2023.

An increase in scams means an increase in criminals needing to launder money.

RACQ is warning members not to fall victim to being a ‘money mule’.

Money mules are often recruited via employment opportunities or romance scams with the aim of using the victim’s personal bank account for the deposit of both illegal and legal funds.

The purpose of laundering money is to hide the true origin of the funds.

For legal funds, the motivation is usually to evade taxes; for illegal funds the motivation is to hide the fact that the funds have been obtained illegally.

Once funds hit the mule’s account, they are asked to transfer the funds; this can either be to another mule, who in turn does the same with the final destination usually being overseas.

Be wary of job advertisements posted online offering great opportunities to work from home and earn good money.

This work will require the mule to use their personal bank account to receive and send money to accounts, deducting a commission for their efforts.

The work usually feels too good to be true – the money earnt does not equate to the effort provided.

RACQ Head of Bank Resilience Sarah Richardson said cost-of-living pressures were making these ‘employment’ opportunities more attractive to people looking for what seemed to be easy money.

Don't fall for a scammer

She said there was evidence of an increase in money mules being recruited through romance scams where scammers entice the prospective mule by building a connection with them, usually online.

Ms Richardson said after establishing a ‘relationship’, the scammer will deposit money into the victim’s bank account before asking them to transfer it for them, usually to so-called friends or family members.

The mule doesn’t think they are being scammed as they haven’t lost any of their money and they are simply helping a ‘friend’.

“Once the scammer gains the trust of the ‘friend’, they then come up with reasons as to why they need to use their bank account to send and receive funds,” Ms Richardson said.

“There are major concerns that these victims don’t understand the full consequences of sending and receiving funds from people unknown to them and without knowing the true purpose of the funds.

“The funds could be used to fund child exploitation or terrorism financing.”

Ms Richardson said members needed to be aware that sending or receiving funds on behalf of someone else could be considered money laundering and lead to criminal charges if you were unable to confirm the source of the funds and the purpose of the transfers.

If you think you have been lured into a money mule scam, immediately contact your bank and report it at cyber.gov.au/report-and-recover/report or with your local police.