The explainers, written for someone who has ten minutes and a bad feeling.
No jargon, no acronyms left undefined, no assumption you already know what a mule is. Read the one that matches your situation.
What is a money mule, really?
Not a criminal mastermind. Usually a person with a normal bank account, a plausible story and no idea whose money they are holding.
Read the explainer →6 min readWhy incoming funds can be a red flag, not a windfall.
Every consumer scam warning in the country is written for money going out. The dangerous case is the one nobody warns you about.
Read the explainer →6 min readHow remote-access “refund” scams drain the account they claim to be filling.
The refund is real on screen and imaginary everywhere else. Here is the mechanism, step by step.
Read the explainer →8 min readHow romance scams turn people into conduits for other people’s crimes.
The money request is not the scam. It is the harvest. The scam was the four months before it.
Read the explainer →6 min readWhy students and migrant communities are targeted first.
Not because anyone is naive. Because a new account, a visa condition and a shared language are three things criminals can use.
Read the explainer →Where to go next
- Scamwatch (National Anti-Scam Centre)
The national report. It feeds the disruption work — even if you lost nothing, the report helps.
- ReportCyber
Where a cybercrime report goes to police. Use this if money moved, or if someone had remote access to your device.
- IDCARE1800 595 160
Free national identity and cyber support. A real person builds you a response plan. Not a government agency, not a debt collector, not paid.
- Crime Stoppers — Don’t Be A Mule
The national campaign on money muling, including how to report anonymously.