Drug and gun gangs are recruiting students on social media to become "money mules" to wash their criminal profits. "Money muling" is a type of money laundering that sees organised crime groups (OCGs) move stolen or illicitly-earned capital through a number of intermediaries using their bank accounts on the premise of a small cut.
Gangs are targeting young people, particularly cash-poor and vulnerable students, through appealing promises of quick and easy money via social media platforms including Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Telegram. The fraudsters see the rich bounty of students that university towns and cities offer and mock-up fake job adverts and "get rich quick" schemes to lure often unsuspecting victims into a web of criminality.
Most victims unaware until debanked
A police expert told the ECHO that most people do not know they are part of an illicit activity until they are "debanked", meaning they are unable to access their accounts and will have likely scuppered their chances of a mortgage or securing a loan. Long-term participation also risks a criminal conviction and a sentence of up to 14 years due to the seriousness with which the courts view money laundering.
Merseyside Police said its most recent report found three in five students were being targeted, while money muling activity involving people under the age of 21 had gone up by 136% between 2023/2024 and 2025/2026. Detective Sergeant John Causton, from Merseyside Police's economic crime unit, told the ECHO that crime groups are using the money to fund the most serious of offending including drugs, human trafficking and weapon supply.
Fake adverts and private messaging apps
Social media is seen as a "massive hunting ground" for the fraudsters whose fake job adverts will ask people to perform simple tasks before requesting them to manage larger payments. The ECHO understands social media adverts typically contain phrases such as "work from home," "easy money" and "no experience needed". Once the criminals have made contact with their targets, they move them from public platforms onto private messaging apps like WhatsApp. This is viewed as a closed forum where the fraudsters can control their identified audience.
Recruitment drivers can also be as primitive as a printed poster put up around a university campus. The criminal tactics can even extend to elements of romance fraud, where the gangs embroil vulnerable targets into the scam by asking them to pay for items and move money on. The police call this "social engineering", where the criminals build trust with a person before asking them to put the money into their account and move it on for a fee. The ECHO understands if £1,000 is moved through an account the "victim" would keep no more than 10%.
Det Sgt Causton said: "That will seem like a really good idea but the ramifications are quite massive to be fair. The main issue is their personal finances going forward, particularly as a student, the impact can be devastating because you're essentially debanked. The banks are taking such a hard line on it now and they are so good at spotting them."
FCA data and police response
A survey published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) found nearly 240,000 suspected mules had their accounts closed in 2025. Analysis found almost anyone is susceptible to this type of crime, with people aged 18 to 40 the most affected. The financial regulator found evidence that criminals move the funds through multiple accounts, usually cashing out between the second and fifth movement, by which time the payments are harder to detect and trace. It was found accounts are often repeatedly used for mule activity which points to established criminal infrastructure rather than opportunistic, isolated incidents.
Det Sgt Causton said because most people do not know they are aiding a criminal conspiracy police don't criminalise everybody involved. "If we did that we will never ever beat the organised crime groups because it actually relies on people to trust the police that we're going to do the right thing," he said. "When we identify a potential victim of money muling we speak to them and provide a cease and desist notice. This deliberately doesn't criminalise people who are actually part of the chain. It tells them to stop doing what they are doing and not to do it again. And what we then do is build an intelligent picture from this. We will look at that person's information, we provide education and safeguarding and the line is drawn. If there is repeat offending then we do obviously look at proper criminal charges which has an end game of up to 14 years in prison."
Cryptocurrency and bank monitoring
While traditionally criminals might have laundered their money into property and seemingly legitimate businesses, more are now turning to the money muling tactic. "Essentially your victims are unsuspecting people that you will never see," Dt Sgt Causton said. "The enablers are faceless. You're putting money into a digital platform because it can be moved instantaneously across multiple platforms and it is borderless. The main route of the money is being transferred straight into cryptocurrency. However, the point of cryptocurrency is it is not regulated. There's no single point of contact. The money can move around in split seconds and next thing it's gone."
Because of the threat of money muling, banks have put huge efforts into monitoring and identifying suspicious activity. Warning factors include accounts suddenly being locked and passwords changed, significant geographical differences in IP addresses, or an alteration to spending habits. Det Sgt Causton said: "A Liverpool student's normal spending will be on Concert Square or down Mathew Street or buying your Subway foot long with your student discount. Next thing that spending changes and now money goes from Liverpool to Glasgow, Liverpool to London, Liverpool to New York."
Banks will then move on to a tactic called coupling, which looks at bank accounts a person would usually send money to. Alarm bells would ring if a student, who would receive payments from their parents or a student loans company, started sending money to a random person. "It's like a massive spiderweb of where the money goes and so all those things start working together," Det Sgt Causton said. "If banks see false trust they will stop the account, you are locked out and your name will go on the blacklist." The banks are then duty bound to share this data with the police by logging it in suspicious activity reports.
Police have warned people to be wary of their online and financial security by ignoring and reporting any suspicious looking job offers, social media accounts or financial schemes to officers or independent charity Crimestoppers. Det Sgt Causton said: "Understanding the warning signs, protecting personal banking information and reporting concerns can help prevent students from becoming victims or unknowingly helping criminal activity."
Steve Smart, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "Money muling is a crime and it's not victimless. It makes it harder to recover stolen cash and helps criminals move and hide the proceeds of serious offending. People should be wary of contact out of the blue, including via online channels, asking them to funnel money through their account as they could face prosecution. It's good that financial firms are taking action on mules, but banks, law enforcement, technology companies and consumers all have a role to play in stopping people being drawn into criminal activity."
