BioCatch Company recently announced a new solution Mule Account Detection, providing comprehensive protection against money mule fraud. Money mules are people who, by order of another person, receive money in their personal accounts obtained from victims of fraud and, from there, enter it into other accounts or deliver it to third parties favoring laundering. These accounts are a critical link in this chain of fraud.
This year, in Spain several organizations that practiced this type of crime have been dismantled, in which they reached scam millions of euros hundreds of people. In October, for example, the National Police dismantled a network of 23 “money mules” in five Spanish provinces.
Cybercriminals have taken advantage of the global pandemic and people’s vulnerability by using their accounts to move money around the world. Young people are particularly vulnerable to money laundering schemes. According to Cifas, a non-profit organization for the prevention of fraud, this year the accounts of people have increased by 78% under 21 who have acted as money mules.
“Detecting mule counts is complex because many different scenarios go into it. A financial institution could be dealing with a criminal who uses a false or stolen identity to open a new account or who could have seized an unwitting victim’s account to launder stolen money”Says Gadi Mazor, CEO of BioCatch. “Our Mule Account Detection solution applies Machine Learning risk models to look for the specific behaviors associated with multiple fraud scenarios that are indicative of mule activity, both when opening an account and paying.”
“Concern about the increase in mules, as a result of the extraordinary number of fraudulent payments intercepted from the stimulus programs, is influencing the number of financial institutions that are incorporating solutions to detect mules”, says Trace Fooshee, Strategic Advisor at Aite, Novarica’s anti-fraud and AML division. “In some cases, financial institutions are changing their policies and even their structures, in order to reduce risks.”
Significant economic losses
When mule accounts go unmanaged, financial institutions face significant financial losses, regulatory problems, and reputational issues. According to a recent survey by Aite-Novarica, 64% of executives say their entities have shown more interest in tracking, detecting and preventing mule activity. The BioCatch Mule Account Detection Solution runs continuously, in each digital session, in the background, monitoring anomalies that may suggest that an account is acting like a money mule.
This platform allows detecting financial fraud in various cases, as when opening an account, of taking control, scams and now mule accounts too. Based on a behavioral biometric technology, BioCatch is present in more than 50 financial institutions around the world, to reduce the emotional and financial impact of fraud and identity theft, providing trust and security while protecting clients and their assets from the threats of fraud. sophisticated.
