Crooks trick individuals into laundering money

Jun 2, 2015 17:41 GMT  ·  By

An alert with a moderate priority from the Australian government informs of the dangers of emails proposing recipients good money in exchange for undemanding tasks.

A recently new type of scam targets individuals with an unstable source of income or those with small earnings, attracting them into illegal schemes that has them as the scapegoat.

Hidden text means hidden agenda

Cybercriminal groups often launder illegally obtained money this way, promising a good pay for alleged advertising campaigns that require the owner of a car to drive around the city with an advertisement stuck on the vehicle.

If the victim accepts, a large amount of money (more than the initially agreed payment) is sent their way and asked to keep what is owed and wire transfer the rest to someone that is in on the scheme.

Payment may come under the form of a check (which ultimately proves to be fake) or as an online transaction, which often results from fraudulent activity.

The Australian Government draws attention to a method commonly used by scammers to bypass some spam filters. One method to circumvent the anti-spam protection is to include hidden text (white font) in HTML pages, along with the bait message.

“This ‘normal’ text—coloured white to hide it from email recipients—reduces the overall percentage of spam-related terms in the email body and convinces some spam filters to allow the email through to users’ inboxes,” reads the notification.

Simple ways to avoid getting scammed

Users can protect themselves by selecting all the text in an email considered distrustful, which would reveal the hidden strings.

The recommendation is to be suspicious of communication that makes an offer “too good to be true,” especially messages providing employment opportunities.

On the same note, propositions for jobs requiring money transfers using bank accounts that are either personal or set up in the user’s name should be rejected on the spot because they are likely an attempt to involve the recipient in criminal activity.