You may be shocked to learn that you are the target of a federal fraud investigation. You always thought of yourself as a decent, law-abiding person who paid their taxes and their bills.
How could you suddenly be accused of fraud?
You may have been an unwitting money mule
The internet has many benefits, but negative aspects also exist. In this case, some people unknowingly become money mules for individual criminals or, more often, organized criminal enterprises that prey on vulnerable and naive people.
Their scams are varied
One popular scam that preys on people seeking employment has them using their personal bank accounts (or special accounts set up just for this purpose) to facilitate transferring money out of the country. That they are assisting criminals is not usually known at first, and the person transferring the money gets to keep a small “commission.”
However, at some point, many at-first unwitting participants learn that they are indeed facilitating fraud. This can sometimes be when the person who “hired” them asks them to recruit friends or family to get a larger commission.
Romance scam may be the saddest
Fraudsters can be relentless in their targets, often seeking out elderly widows and widowers who are lonely and without living or involved family members. They can be easily convinced to launder money through their legitimate bank accounts they use for their direct-deposit Social Security checks.
Because those are romance scams, where the elderly person believes that the person on the other end of their phone or computer is in love with them. Even when presented with evidence of fraud by concerned relatives, they can cling to this delusion, continue to launder money and get into trouble for it.
If you have been involved in a scam that may have led to money laundering activity, seeking legal guidance is wise.