How a money mule account works, and how people end up as one

When someone is scammed, the money rarely goes straight to the people who ran the scam. It lands in an account first, and then moves on. The person whose account it was is the money mule. This post explains how that works and how ordinary people end up in that role. It is general explanation, not legal advice, and the law differs by country. Our scheme page on money mule recruitment covers the scam itself.

What a mule is

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center defines a money mule as any individual who transfers funds on behalf of, or at the direction of, another. It splits them into three groups. Unwitting mules are not aware they are part of a larger scheme and believe they are helping a romantic partner or an employer. Witting mules ignore warning signs, may have been warned by bank staff and carry on, and “generally begin as an unwitting mule”. Complicit mules know their role.

UK prosecutors describe the same spread: a mule’s participation “may be willing or unwilling” and the extent of their knowledge “may vary”. Our glossary entry gives the short version.

What happens to the money

The FDIC’s inspector general says victims are sent to mule accounts rather than to the criminals directly “to obscure identities”. The mule is then told to withdraw cash, buy cryptocurrency or gift cards, pass the money to other accounts or send it overseas. Those steps hide where the money came from. Some schemes use couriers who collect cash or gold from victims in person.

The Crown Prosecution Service distinguishes accounts opened and operated by individual mules from accounts set up by networks using false, stolen or fraudulently obtained credentials. The Home Office adds that mules can hand control of their account to criminals, and that people in a network may not know each other. It cites an estimate that over £10 billion of illicit funds is laundered through mule networks in the UK each year and that more than 39,000 accounts showed mule-like behaviour in 2022.

How people end up as one

The US Postal Inspection Service names four routes:

• Work-from-home jobs offering easy money for reshipping packages, buying gift cards or money orders, or transferring money.
• Confidence offers from strangers, often on social media, of a commission for moving money.
• Lottery scams that say you must accept or transfer money to collect a prize.
• Romance scams, where a partner you met online asks you to move money or packages.

The FBI adds unsolicited messages asking you to open a bank account, crypto wallet or business in your name, and non-payment and non-delivery scams. The FDIC inspector general says recruitment often targets job seekers with remote work as a “payments processor”. Cifas, the UK fraud prevention service, describes fake job adverts that collect bank details by saying they are needed to pay wages. Its 2026 report adds social media lures: job scams, “business opportunities” and overpaying sellers on online marketplaces. See job and task scams, romance scams and lottery scams.

Who is targeted? The FBI names the elderly, college-aged students and newly arrived immigrants. UK prosecutors say mule herders usually target people aged 17 to 34 but also younger children and older adults. Europol’s 2023 operation reported criminals targeting migrants from Ukraine, posing as bank officials to persuade older people to open accounts, and giving young people gift cards to buy goods for resale. Both the FBI and the FDIC stress that anyone can be approached.

Why a mule is not treated as a victim of the fraud

A mule is not the victim of the underlying fraud, even when the mule was deceived too. The law asks what they did and what they knew, and some jurisdictions treat coerced or exploited people differently.

In the United States, the FBI warns that mules face prison sentences, fines or community service “even if unwitting”, and lists possible federal charges including wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. The FDIC inspector general says mules can be prosecuted and held financially accountable for victims’ losses. We found no US source in this research that explains how prosecutors weigh knowledge in individual cases.

In England and Wales the three main laundering offences carry up to 14 years, and the prosecution must show the person knew or suspected the money was criminal property. The CPS says receiving small payments “does not necessarily indicate knowledge or suspicion”. It lists what can show knowledge: being paid to allow account use, using false documents or AI tools to open accounts, or an earlier warning notice. It also tells prosecutors to consider whether the suspect was exploited, and the modern slavery statutory defence. The public interest may sometimes be served by an out-of-court Economic Crime Cease and Desist notice.

The Home Office goes further for children and adults at risk who are coerced or deceived: they “should be treated as victims, not as criminals”, and the term “mule” should not be used for them. Banks, it notes, find it hard to tell a complicit mule from a coerced victim, and frozen accounts can deepen the person’s difficulties.

The typical consequences

The sources list the same set:

• Frozen or closed accounts. The FDIC inspector general lists inaccessible accounts and long-term credit effects. Cifas lists a criminal record, a closed account, and difficulty opening another, getting a phone contract or accessing credit.
• Personal liability for victims’ losses, and exposure of the personal documents handed over.
• Threats. The FBI says mules and their families may be threatened with violence if they stop.

A US sentencing reported in June 2026 shows how it can end. A 79-year-old who moved money for lottery scam victims received three years of probation, not prison, and was ordered to pay $1.97 million across 28 victims. One bank closed her account less than a week after her first deposit. See the case page.

How banks and police describe the scale

Cifas reports more than 22,000 cases recorded under a new mule category in 2025. Europol’s ninth European Money Mule Action, led by the Netherlands with 26 countries, identified 10,759 mules and 474 recruiters, and led to 1,013 arrests, with 2,822 banks and institutions supporting it. Those figures count people identified, not people convicted.

If you think you are being recruited

Both the FBI and the FDIC inspector general say to stop transferring money, tell your bank and report to IC3 at ic3.gov. The FBI adds stopping contact with the recruiter and keeping receipts and messages. See our US and UK pages.

What we could not verify

We could not retrieve the FBI’s own mule page or the Take Five campaign page, so we relied on the FBI’s published alert. We found no reliable measure of how many mules are unwitting, and no outcome statistics for prosecutions. The Europol figures are from 2023.