Money Mules and Cybercrime Involvement Mechanisms: Exploring the Experiences and Perceptions of Young People in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

Money mules play an essential role in the execution of financially-motivated cybercrimes. The bank accounts of money mules, who are often young individuals, are used to hide and launder stolen money, allowing members of cybercriminal networks to maintain their anonymity. In order to better understand the pathways that lead to cybercrime, this explorative study aims to map the experiences and perceptions of Dutch young people related to money muling. To this end, an online survey was administered among more than 3,000 individuals, aged between 16 and 25. Our analysis showed that almost ten percent of the respondents have been approached by money mule recruiters at some point. Most were contacted online via social media platforms, such as Snapchat and Instagram, but also offline, by their peers at school or by acquaintances or friends. Less than one percent of the respondents confessed to have actually been a money mule. The respondents’ awareness about the risks connected to money muling was rather low and they seemed to underestimate the consequences of being a money mule, which makes them vulnerable to recruiters. Some young people also find it normal to be approached by recruiters and acceptable for others to use their bank accounts.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Taskforce for Applied Research SIA of the Dutch Research Council under Grant RAAK.PUB06.032.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Nationaal Regieorgaan Praktijkgericht Onderzoek SIA [RAAK.PUB06.032].

Notes on contributors

Luuk Bekkers

Luuk 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.

Ynze Van Houten

Ynze van Houten is a senior researcher at the research group Public Security at Saxion University of Applied Sciences. He studied Experimental Psychology, has a PhD in Behavioral Sciences, and has specialized in the human interaction with technology. His current research focuses on how to increase the resilience of different target groups against different types of cybercrime.

Remco Spithoven

Remco Spithoven is head of the research group of Public Security at Saxion University of Applied Sciences. After his master of Public Administration with a specialization in security studies and his PhD in the Social Sciences with a research focus on fear of crime, his research focusses on risk perception, cyber resilience and digital security. He is editor in chief of “Tijdschrift voor Veiligheid” (Dutch, scientific) and “Basisboek integrale veiligheid” (Dutch, applied sciences).

Eric Rutger Leukfeldt

Rutger 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 investigations and interviewed both cybercriminals and victims.