Gardaí issue warning about ‘money mules’ who are targeting 18-24 year olds

You have to be so careful.

The Garda Campus Watch Creating Fraud Awareness campaign has commenced today, April 10 2019 and will run until Friday May 31. In the 2019 FraudSMART survey, it found that more than 43 percent of 18-24-year-olds are likely or very likely to lodge or transfer money for someone using their own bank account, however they do it in exchange for keeping some of the money for themselves. This makes them the age group most susceptible to becoming money mules compared with an overall average of 29 percent of adults across all ages. The survey also revealed that 14 percent of people aged 18-24 say that they or someone they know have already been asked by another person to use their bank details to store money for someone else. Detective Inspector Catharina Gunne from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau said: "A Money Mule is a person who transfers money illegally on behalf of other people. "They allow their account to be used for the transfer of ill-gotten gains. They may or may not be aware of the crime.  However, they are complicit if they recklessly allow their account to be used to launder the proceeds of these crimes. "Students are often targeted by Organised Crime Gangs to act as money mules, laundering thousands of euro through their accounts in exchange for a few hundred euro.” The advice the Gardaí have issued is: