LUTZ, Fla. (WLFA) – A nationwide money laundering scam turns some job seekers into money mules and could potentially bilk Tampa Bay area small businesses out of thousands of dollars.
A Better Call Behnken investigation found a Lutz business, Al’s Lawncare Products & Services, was targeted by crooks.
Company owners learned that five people, scattered across the country, received checks from the business account for $2,933.
“I panicked at first,” said Jennifer Rankin, manager of the business that her parents started years ago.
Rankin’s first clue that something was wrong was a strange phone call from a woman in Massachusetts.
“She wanted to know why she received a check from a business she knows nothing about,” Rankin said.
Rankin also wanted to know the answer to that question.
It turns out, the check image was stolen when an employee of Al’s Lawncare deposited his paycheck.
It was used in what the FBI says is a growing scam, targeting job seekers and small businesses.
First, the check image is stolen and then the sent to a person who responded to a fake employment advertisement online.
The person is told to deposit the check and keep some of the money for themselves and then use the rest to buy things for the “company.”
In the case of Rankin’s check, the money was to used to buy Xboxes and flat-screen televisions.
If the directions are followed, the job seeker ends up taking part in a money laundering scheme and could be prosecuted.
Rankin is grateful she figured out this scam before her business lost nearly $15,000.
“We’re family run, family operated. Close to Christmas, that would have been bad.”
Meanwhile, the FBI warns that job seekers look out for this scam and report it to them if you come across it. You can file complaints at the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
The FBI offers these tips:
Signs You May Be Acting as a Money Mule
- You received an unsolicited email or contact over social media promising easy money for little to no effort.
- The “employer” you communicate with uses web-based email (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or Outlook).
- You are asked to open up a bank account in your own name or in the name of a company you form to receive and transfer money.
- As an employee, you are asked to receive funds in your bank account and then “process funds” or “transfer funds” via a wire transfer, ACH, mail or money service business (such as Western Union or MoneyGram).
- You are allowed to keep a portion of the money you transfer.
- Your duties have no specific job description.
- Your online companion, whom you have never met in person, asks you to receive money and, subsequently, forward the funds to an individual you do not know.
How to Protect Yourself
- A legitimate company will not ask you to use your own bank account to transfer their money. Do not accept any job offers that ask you to do this.
- Be wary when an employer asks you to form a company in order to open up a new bank account.
- Never give your financial details to someone you don’t know and trust, especially if you met them online.
- Be wary when job advertisements are poorly written with grammatical errors and spelling mistakes.
- Be suspicious when the individual you met on a dating website wants to use your bank account for receiving and forwarding money.
- Perform online searches to check the information from any solicitation emails and contacts.
- Ask the employer, “Can you send a copy of the license/permit to conduct business in my county or state?”
How to Respond
- If you have received solicitations of this type, do not respond to them and do not click on any links they contain. Inform your local police or the FBI.
- If you believe that you are participating in a money mule scheme, stop transferring money immediately and notify your bank, the service you used to conduct the transaction and law enforcement.
