14 DAY TRIAL // It’s not enough for cybercriminals to steal bank account information in order to make a profit. They also need to find someone willing to use the stolen data to cash out the money. According to experts, this is becoming more and more difficult.
Cybercriminals can collect a large quantity of financial data with the aid of malware and phishing attacks. Once they have the information, they log into the victim’s bank account and transfer money to a so-called mule account.
Mules are willing or unwitting individuals who receive the funds from the victim’s bank account and forward it, minus their commission, to the fraudster.
However, RSA experts say the number of fraudsters offering cashout services has decreased considerably. Compared to the past, when a large number of services were openly available in the cybercriminal underground, currently, only one tenth of these services are still around.
“It appears that banks are doing a better job at identifying mule accounts and are in fact declining and or outright blocking potentially fraudulent transfers sent to them,” Idan Aharoni, head of cyber intelligence at RSA, noted in a blog post.
“As a result, mule herders are becoming more particular about who they work with – opting to work with fraudsters they know rather than just anyone they meet ‘off the street’. This sharp decrease in the numbers of cashout services is having an impact on the whole fraud ecosystem,” he added.
While the lack of money mules is a good thing because it’s more difficult to turn compromised data into money, Aharoni warns that we shouldn’t get our hopes up.
Although there’s a lack of money mules, such services are still available. And, since a single mule herder network can operate over 100 mules at a time, there’s still a large profit to be made.
Also, it’s worth noting that only the availability of banking mules has decreased. Reshipping mules, individuals that accept items purchased with stolen credit cards and reship them to the fraudsters, are still as available as before.
“Overall, this is good news. If the availability of fraud services in the underground dramatically lowers the bar for new players to join the world of fraud, then a lower availability of a crucial link in the chain means that the bar just moved up a notch,” Aharoni said.