The below article is submitted to us by Equifax and is originally published on their website.

What is a money mule?

If you’ve ever seen a job advert which seemed too good to be true, you might have missed the opportunity of a lifetime – or you could have just narrowly avoided being a money mule.

Money mules are often normal people who are unwittingly helping criminals make a living by helping them launder money. The people who work as money mules are often taken in by job ads offering them the chance to work from home as ‘payment officers’ or ‘finance assistants’, earning large sums of money per week – but what they don’t know is the cash they’re earning is a commission on the money they’re transferring.

Here’s how to spot a fake job offer, what’s going on behind the scenes when you work as a money mule – and what will happen to you when you get caught.

What is a money mule? – An infographic from Equifax UK

For more information, feel free to visit Equifax’s ‘Knowledge Centre’ which serves as an informational hub. The Knowledge Centre covers a variety of financial categories from sorting your debts to boosting your credit score and learning how to budget, everything you need to know to keep your finances in check.