Visuals: There are a combination of images used that show instant gratification; key features include cash, cars, watches and evidence that large sums have been transferred into bank accounts. Further to this, many of the pages had adverts in their “stories” asking people to DM them if they want to make money quickly and requested people with very specific bank accounts to get in touch.
Language: By doing a simple drag and drop of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages into a tag cloud generator, FINTRAIL identified the types of language used across all platforms; the more popular the word, the larger it appears. The language used on the accounts really highlighted three key areas; fraudsters would request a specific bank account whether Barclays, Lloyds etc, then offer free fast easy money and explain that this was only a DM or whatsapp message away.
High chance of money muling: The combination of these images linked with these words are likely to indicate and point to something unsavoury and potentially illicit. This combination of factors can be used by social platforms to limit the likelihood of false positives when monitoring behaviour on their platforms and if kept up to date with evolving typological information, would create a far more effective disruption to wholesale financial crime scams than the over reliance on the regulated financial sector, by which point the damage is already done and the act of money laundering has already occurred.
So What Next?
For FINTRAIL our money-mule journey on the social media platforms ended with the phrases “DM me for more info” or “whatsapp me”. However, in reality we know that this is only the beginning. We know that from here, behind the scenes, bank details are exchanged and money transfers are being made. This is where law enforcement has a critical role to play, coordinated with social media platforms, so that more can be done upstream to reduce the impact and have far more effect, reducing harm across the value chain of money mule activity.
Instagram as well as Facebook, use a new AI system Deep Text to essentially deal with and counteract major issues such as cyber bullying as well as malicious posts and comments. If the Instagram algorithm detects or finds provoking content, it’s discarded immediately. This demonstrates that technology already exists that can have an enormous impact on how social media platforms are abused (3).
A robust disruption of Step 1 of the money-mule cycle that is facilitated by social platforms will have a significant downstream impact where the end result would likely amount to a positive reduction in;
harm and exploitation of vulnerable people
costs to law enforcement effort (investigating money-mule cases)
the burden on the UK and global Suspicious Reporting Regimes
the burden placed on those operating in the regulated financial service sector
Very clearly, this needs to be an industry wide coordinated effort with law enforcement at the forefront and social media platforms on board. During the fifth Europol Money Mule Action (EMMA 5) week, 3883 money mules were identified alongside 386 money mule recruiters; 228 of these were arrested. As a major catalyst of money muling recruitment, social media platforms should share the burden and play their part in the deterrence of money muling by utilising technology they already have.
Get in Touch
If you are interested in speaking to the FINTRAIL team about the topics discussed here or any other anti-financial crime topics, please feel free to get in touch with one of our team or at contact@fintrail.co.uk
(1) How teenage money mules funnel millions from online fraud
(2) Monitor social media of young offenders to prevent crime says watchdog
(3) Instagram leverages AI and big data
