The Justice Department stated earlier this week that it is cracking down on money mules, or middlemen who provide assistance in fraud schemes, claiming that it has stopped over 600 money mules this year. Money mules refer to people who receive money from victims and forward the proceeds to foreign perpetrators. More than 30 individuals currently face criminal charges for their roles in these fraud schemes, and the Department of Justice claims that this is triple the number of criminal prosecutions against money mules last year.
The FBI also warned of this style of fraudulent schemes in which a middle man intercepts communications, often through email, and gets the victim to wire money to an outside account rather than the legitimate account associated with the intended recipient. Malicious threat actor groups continue to develop convincing and efficient attacks, the FBI claims that losses from business email compromise attacks totaled $1.2 billion in 2019, double that of 2018.
Read More: Feds Crack Down on Money Mules, Warn of BEC Scams
