Younger people in the UK are becoming increasingly more vulnerable to money mules according to new research conducted by digital fraud prevention firm BioCatch.
Two-thirds (65%) of money mules – a person who illegally transfers money – in the UK were found to be under the age of 30-years-old, which supports Cifas recent findings that just 22% of adults in the UK thought the practice was illegal in the country.
This leads to greater conversations to be had on education amongst younger people on the dangers of money muling as they are becoming the primary demographic target.
BioCatch’s findings discovered that youth unemployment (14.5%) is more than three times above the national average (4.4%), and is rising from 12.4% in 2023. Combined with the recent strife of the cost-of-living crisis, young people are becoming more dependent on making money than their older counterparts.
BioCatch Director of Global Fraud Intelligence, Tom Peacock commented: “Criminals are exploiting the financial vulnerabilities of young people in the UK. They’re taking advantage of high youth unemployment in the UK and a lack of awareness about the serious legal consequences of money muling, making this group particularly susceptible to exploitation.”
“The tip-of-the-iceberg metaphor is tired and overused, but the 2 million mule accounts our customers reported in 2024 likely represent only a fraction of the money laundering accounts either in use or lying dormant within the world’s 44,000 financial institutions last year.”
The report, titled “Global money mule networks: Using behavioural and device intelligence to shine a light on money laundering,” provided an extensive look at how organised crime employs money mules to launder illicit profits, how a variety of different types of mules operate as part of broader, often sprawling and money-washing networks.
Moving outside of the UK, the report highlighted that in the US, people aged 25-35 are most likely to enlist as money mules, which they often cited as a side job to make additional money.
“One of the major discoveries we uncovered while collaborating with financial institutions via our Mule Account Detection solution was how mule accounts connect fraud, financial crime, and money laundering,” BioCatch SVP of Emerging Solutions, Kevin Donovan added.
“While Europol links 90% of money mules to cybercrime, the rest of these accounts launder the proceeds of a litany of other offences. And they’re all part of the same criminal ecosystem. Scammers employ victims of human trafficking. Investment scam victims act as money mules.”