Your online banking account, as well as your ATM card details, should be kept private at all times. Unfortunately, there are individuals and syndicates that offer profits and rewards if you share your bank account with them. By allowing these people to turn your personal savings account into a mule account, you could be getting yourself in trouble as syndicates might use it as a proxy for illegal activities.
According to the Association of Banks Malaysia, mule account scams are part of a new syndicate operation that uses your bank account to send and receive money to evade detection by the authorities. If you’re caught, you could be prosecuted by the law for aiding criminals.
Earlier this year, the Royal Malaysian Police has detained 145 individuals suspected to have allowed their bank accounts to be used as mule accounts since 10 December 2018. It was reported that most of these suspects are students, retirees and drug addicts. Most of them have acquainted with unknown individuals via social media which promised to offer monetary gains or for reasons of love.
In some cases, there are cases where online buyers are scammed into depositing their money into these mule accounts without the knowledge of the actual bank account holders.
The public is urged not to be fooled by such tactics and any suspicious offers should be reported to the authorities immediately.
