News
G DATA: Dream job money launderer, eCrime recruiting is in full swing
January 2009 by
The predictions for the 2009 labour market are dire. In
the wake of the financial crises, many people are
worried about losing their jobs, affected by
reduced working hours or have already lost their
jobs at the end of the year. Since the start of the
year, online criminals have been trying to
capitalise on this insecurity by sending out more job offers via e-mail.
Many of these mails are recruiting spam from criminal organisations that
are merely looking for mules for financial transactions. They are offering
jobs working from home as bookkeepers or financial agents. Anyone
accepting the offer thus joins the eCrime community as a money
launderer. The victims usually realise this only once the prosecutor
comes knocking on the door.
G DATA Security Labs have noticed that recruiting spam from criminal
organisations has skyrocketed since last week. G DATA security expert Ralf
Benzmüller provides an insight into the criminals’ tactics and explains what
potential home workers could get involved in.
“In times of an omnipresent financial crisis, the temptation
could hardly be greater: Quick and easy money. With offers
like that, the cyber mafia is currently staging a massive
attempt to recruit e-mail recipients as supposed financial
agents. Anyone taking the bait inadvertently becomes a
money launderer and therefore an accomplice – with all the
unpleasant consequences such as claims for damages and
criminal persecution” explains Ralf Benzmüller, manager of G
DATA Security Labs.
Current recruiting spam
Felony included: dream job money launderer
Hired as a "Financial Agent" or "Transaction Manager“, the activity of the
recruited e-mail recipients consists of accepting money transfers to their
personal bank accounts. The victims then use cash transfer services such as
Western Union to send money to a supposed business address, often in
Eastern Europe.
The “employee” gets to keep a certain portion of the transfer amount, usually
between 3 and 5 percent, as commission for his or her services.
Treacherous: The incoming transfers originate from online auction fraud or
illegally executed online transactions from successful phishing attacks. The
criminals therefore use the hired "agents” as nothing but money launderers.
Once the money is on its way abroad via cash transfer, the previously fleeced
victims hardly stand a chance to get back their money.
Instead of further requests, the inadvertent money launderers then receive
claims for damages or letters from the prosecution.
The G DATA Security Labs experts warn expressly against responding to job
offers of this type and recommend that recipients delete the corresponding
bait mails without reading them.
Examples of subject lines:
Make money in no time at all
Make money fast
Quick and easy cash
It takes hardly any time at all to make a wad of cash
Make dosh in no time
Examples of the content of the mail:
Get a job!!!
Make at least five hundred a week!
Get a lot of money!
Job up for grabs!
Great money to be made!
The individual mails contain contact e-mail addresses from the free mail
provider gmail.
