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Personal financesPublished

Are you a money mule?

Have you been asked to receive money, withdraw it and then hand it back to the sender? Perhaps by your boyfriend, a friend, or a friend’s friend? If you have, you need to say 'no' next time! Why? Because you might have acted as a money mule, which is illegal.

In Denmark, we’ve seen an increase in young people that are being aware or unaware of that they're taking part in money laundering. This takes place through money muling. A money mule is someone who withdraws money that has been transferred to their account, perhaps through MobilePay, and makes another transfer out of their account with the money they just received.

For example, a person might come up to you in the shopping mall and tell you that they’ve just lost their card and need some money. He or she may ask you to withdraw money that they transfer to your account, for example through MobilePay. You agree to withdraw the 1000kr that the person will transfer, but eventually you see that he transferred 10 000kr and you need to withdraw all of this. Many might think that this is perfectly fine. But it is not.

No matter if it is your boyfriend or girlfriend that asks you to withdraw money that they’ve just transferred or if it is a friend that makes a MobilePay transfer and asks you to forward it to a new receiver, it is a criminal act to do this. If you forward money like this, it is considered money laundering.

We know that most young people are not aware of this and the lack of knowledge is an issue. But with the responsibility of having your own bank account, comes the responsibility of handling your money in the right way, and we need to work together to reduce money muling.

So here are some tips that we strongly advise you to follow:

  1. Never receive money that you are supposed to forward through a new transfer or withdraw, no matter whether it is for someone you know or a stranger.
  2. Say ‘no’ in case you’ve been offered payment if you transfer money through your account.
  3. Never give out your account information or other sensitive information.

Remember to protect yourself since it can be punishable to act as a money mule for other people's criminal money.

In case you suspect that you’ve received money in an illegal way, you should not 'touch' the money on your account and contact your parents or the police, and leave the money.

In case you have any questions about this or need any help, you can always contact our support through the chat in your app 🙏

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