I have been writing here about money mule scam, especially regarding a personally experienced money mule scammer, Tournaments Pro. However, I have not cleared yet how do money mule scammers really affect us. Would it affect us? Why should we bother about money mule scams and money mule scammers? Why should we be careful and be aware of a potential money mule scammer ? What can it do to us? What is a money mule scam in the place, anyway?According to Wikipedia, a money mule is a person who transfers money and reships high value goods that have been fraudulently obtained in one country, usually via the internet, to another country, usually where the perpetrator of the fraud lives. The term money mule is formed by analogy with drug mules. Moreover, the need for money mules arises because while a criminal in a developing country/ base country can obtain the credit card numbers, bank account numbers, passwords and other financial details of a victim living in the first world/victim’s country via the internet through techniques such as malware and phishing, turning those details into money usable in the criminal's own country can be difficult. Many businesses will refuse to transfer money or ship goods to certain countries where there is a high likelihood that the transaction is fraudulent. The criminal therefore recruits a money mule in the victim's country who will receive money transfers and merchandise and resend them to the criminal in return for a commission.

This happens to millions of us every day. Sometimes spam mails are not filtered and some of us jump to conclusion believing that such offers are true. The case that I personally experienced was an international company offering a dream job, say that’s TournamentsPro. The offer is to be their agent or coordinator or anything that can connect you/me/us to that fake company. We/You/I would then become a financial intermediary, not really an agent, receiving payments for them and distributing such money or transferring such received amount of money to them, and, naturally, keeping a commission on each transaction or for the percentage of the amount transferred.

Sometimes, these scams can offer really a “too good to be true” kind of contract. Only credentials (they may even use these credentials later on for another scam) such as passport, signature, bank details, etcetera are required from the victim: no investment, plain and simple.
But what’s the problem with this? How can we be victims? We are only distributing assets, right? We don’t invest and no money wasted from our side so what’s the big deal?
At first, it really looks good and promising but it really is not good and promising and can compromise our dignity and damage our good name. The victim is the money mule now, a person that is involve in a fraudulent, or a lot of fraudulent activities.

In my previous posts about this scam, we take this case as an example: the Tournaments Pro, Limited Company. It’s a legitimate looking website, or a company’s website (pretending to be) and so they can fool people easily. The scammers behind tournaments pro has other websites claiming to be legitimate business: real estate, auto rental and sales, etc.

What the scammers do is try to sell their “non-existent” services with the payment sent to or deposited in the account of the victim: the money mule and there you are: the victim is involved! It is the victim who has the name, where the dirty money came in and where the authorities has tracks because of the payments and the names given to the other scammed individual: the buyer.

Usually, the scammer sells inexistent auto, or rent an inexistent apartment for a very low price and ask for a down payment. This very little down payment is the amount that goes to the money mule person (the victim) but this little amount can accumulate to big amounts and when the victim buyer finds out, it’s the money mule who’s having a big trouble: and that’s where the big trouble comes in if one gets into the hands and claw of the money mule scammer. Be careful then. Do not trust offers online.