Money Mule Scams: Patterns of Involvement and Awareness Campaign

From January until March 2020, there have been 2,330 reported incidents of online fraud. The moment a scammer manages to manipulate the victim’s emotion and interest, it will be an open door for the scammer who will not have to endure a painstaking hacking and cracking scheme. Furthermore, scam activities are mostly conducted online through social media in line with the rapid development of e-banking services at present. This paper will discuss how people get involved and awareness campaign initiatives from mule account holders' perspective. The qualitative methodology has been used in this study. Overall, the awareness level of money mules is still low and the existing awareness and communication initiatives are not fully effective and can be refined further. Many people still do not know what money muling exactly is and some of them are under the impression that it is a legitimate activity. We recommend BNM to enhance the communication initiatives using social media, TV, radio, youtube and phone messages. In addition, BNM should also target public places such as government agencies, shopping malls, public transportation stations and hospitals. The content should be appropriate to the relevant demographics and personality traits, especially those with high risk of involvement in money mule activities. BNM should also cooperate with other relevant agencies to develop an integrated database on money mule cases in order to come up with better analysis and more effective mitigating or intervening actions.