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ABSTRACT
There are reports that criminal networks advertise on social media to recruit new members. In this paper, we will focus on money mules and examine how they become involved in cybercrime on Instagram. Money mules are used to hide the financial trail of a crime and are thus indispensable for cybercriminal networks. Yet, there is a dearth of research on this group. Based on keywords derived from the literature, 43 Dutch Instagram accounts were identified that are most likely used to recruit money mules. We analyzed the content of said accounts in order to map the recruitment techniques used by criminals online. Insights from previous literature on offline recruitment were used to provide an initial framework for the analysis. Thereafter, results were considered in the light of situational crime prevention. In this article, we will argue that while Instagram indeed offers possibilities for criminals to recruit money mules, different situational strategies can be applied to prevent this. This study underlines the relevance of social media in criminological research and encourages future studies to explore this innovative method further.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
L. M. J. Bekkers
L. M. J. Bekkers is a PhD-candidate at the Centre of Expertise Cyber Security of THUAS and has a master’s degree in criminology and psychology. His research focusses primarily on money mules, in which he takes both a qualitative and quantitative approach in order to explain the involvement of individuals into cybercrime. Luuk also explores other topics related to the human factor of cybercrime.
E. R. Leukfeldt
E. R. Leukfeldt is a Senior researcher at the NSCR and director of the Centre of Expertise Cybersecurity of THUAS. Rutger has been doing research into the human factor of cybercrime for 15 years. During that period, he was involved in both fundamental academic research and applied research for companies and governments. Rutger carries out both quantitative and qualitative studies, but his expertise lies in qualitative methods. Over the years, he analyzed numerous large scale police investigation and interviewed both cybercriminals and victims.