Good afternoon everyone and a very warm welcome to this Barclays event.
Money mules.
What are they? And how to avoid the trap.
So firstly, some introductions before we hand over to our guest speakers.
Firstly, I’m Ross Martin, Head of Digital Safety at Barclays
and I work in our Barclays Digital Eagles Team.
I'm delighted to say I'm joined by some excellent guest speakers,
Sam Brooker from our Barclays Mules Team.
And I'm also delighted to say we're joined by Ebony King,
Youth Advocate and Founder of Elevate Her UK charity.
Earning extra money
for doing very little may sound attractive.
The promise on offer of easy money
with no strings attached
would lure many people in.
But what's the catch?
Today you'll be hearing from Sam, who'll be providing an insight
into what the banking industry are doing to monitor and detect suspicious mule activity
and what Barclays are doing to help protect and educate our customers.
You'll also be hearing from Ebony, who will be sharing her own story,
how she was targeted and the consequences she has experienced as a result.
Towards the end of today's event, there will be a Q&A session.
So throughout the event, we would really like you to submit your questions
using the functionality you see on-screen.
And we'll do our best to pose as many of these questions to Sam and Ebony.
So in the top right corner of your screen,
you'll see the option to type your question
and then simply click ‘Submit’ for us to receive your question.
So now I'd like to introduce our first guest speaker
Sam Brooker, from the Barclays Mules Team.
Over to you, Sam.
Thank you, Ross, and welcome everyone,
and thank you for joining us today to talk about this very compelling subject.
Money mules, so what are they?
I'm here to talk to you about how criminals
use money mules to move money.
So let's start at the beginning and try to explain what a money mule actually is.
A money mule is someone who lets criminals use their bank accounts to move money.
Often that mule doesn't know what's really happening
and has been manipulated into believing a cover story
or lured by an offer of a repayment.
There are two main types of money mules.
One of those will be witting.
Witting mules are generally complicit with the crime.
They are aware of the criminal source of funds
and typically they can be recruited using social media platforms.
Most commonly Instagram, WhatsApp or Snapchat.
Account holders are generally lured by quick cash opportunities
and will disclose their account security details,
payment cards and PINs in exchange for monetary rewards.
They may also receive and send on criminal funds themselves,
but generally they're aware that what they're doing is actually wrong.
Then on the flip side, there’s the unwitting.
These individuals engage in mule activity generally under false pretences.
It could involve exploitation, where they're duped into distributing payments,
while actually being scammed themselves.
You might also have heard the term ‘mule herder’.
So what is a mule herder?
Well, they are the key support to the criminal gangs as it's them
who recruit the actual money mule to do the job for them.
They do that by searching your social media profile for information
and then use it to befriend you, or trick you into receiving stolen money
into your bank account.
That's the key thing that a mule herder is looking for - you to have a bank account.
They might approach you online through a messaging app
or actually in person at the school gates or in the workplace or at university.
They are importantly the link between the mule
and the organised crime gangs,
or OCG’s as we call them, along with law enforcement.
These OCG's could be funding terrorism across the world
like drugs or human trafficking - sexual exploitation.
And it scares me to think of the innocent people encountering these dangerous individuals.
So what does money mule activity actually look like?
Mule herders tend to lie to get what they want.
They might say it's quick and easy and, you know,
no ramifications involved in doing it.
And it's an easy way to make money, or that they urgently need to receive a payment.
And you're the only one who can help them.
But they can't use their own account for whatever reason.
They might even offer a cash or gifts as a reward or incentive.
The herder will use that cover story as an excuse to pass you that stolen money.
They might ask you to open a bank account yourself,
if you don't already have one.
They might transfer money to you or give you cash to pay into your account.
They could ask you to pass it on by a bank transfer,
or withdraw it as cash, or even ask you to buy,
to purchase a high value item in exchange for the money.
Importantly, passed back to the criminal network.
They might ask for your online banking details
so that they can do the activities themselves on your own account.
Or they might ask for an activation code to access your banking app.
But importantly, it lets them access your account
and use it to clean their dirty money.
Which means to essentially confuse the origin of the funds
and to make those funds appear genuine.
They also could actually buy an item from you
and ask to pay by bank transfer.
But the important thing is they tend to pay from a stolen account
and you give them the item and often you can lose those funds
once the criminal nature of them is understood
by the banking system.
So is it a crime to act as a money mule?
Well, absolutely. Yes, it is.
Unfortunately, handling money that comes from illegal activity is a crime,
even if you don't know what you're doing.
Money can often be traced
to someone who has been the victim of a scam or a fraud.
I'm sure we all know someone who has been affected by a scam
at some point in the past.
Whether they're old or young, vulnerable or not,
UK Finance, who are the trade association for the banking industry,
have advised that over £1.2 billion
was stolen through fraud last year.
That's the equivalent of over £2,300 every minute.
Most importantly, if we didn't have mules,
there would not be a route to take a lot of those funds from those victims.
They simply wouldn't be able to operate.
If you are a mule, the consequences can range from
your bank account being closed, to even going to prison.
But what is the reality of getting caught
and what impact could this have on your lifestyle or your future?
For most people, getting caught means that your bank account could be closed
and you'll have problems opening a new one.
That makes paying your basic living expenses so much harder,
removes any independence that you might have.
You could find it difficult to get credit
like a student loan, phone contract, or a mortgage or a loan.
You could end up with a criminal record
and that could affect your ability to get a job or to go to university.
But you could also go to prison for up to 14 years.
So it's important that you know the warning signs -
the red flags to look out for.
This can help you identify mule herders and avoid falling for their tricks.
Or contact from someone that you don't know
trying to befriend you,
especially online or through a messaging app.
Look out for someone you may also, who may also ask you to move money for them.
Always check that you know where the funds have come from.
Look out for anyone you've met online,
offering deals that sound too good to be true.
It often is.
Be suspicious of jobs offering quick and easy money
with no experience necessary.
Be wary of anyone who asks to transfer money
to your bank account for you to pass on to another account.
And take care when selling an item,
where the buyer insists on paying by bank transfer
or pressuring you for a quick sale.
Or even paying over the odds, that's not usual.
So what are Barclays doing to target mules?
We focus on prevention.
If we can prevent a mule,
we can prevent a potential scam, and that means less victims.
We do this by providing targeted education
to our colleagues and customers on how to protect themselves.
Our priority is to protect our customers as well as society in general
of the dangers presented by criminal gangs who are at the heart of this problem.
Last year, 43% of mule cases identified by Barclays
were individuals under the age of 25.
So we tend to do lots of targeted messages
in those younger age categories.
The children's digital banking market is expanding.
UK finance revealed that the number of 14 to 18-year-olds
misusing their bank account rose by 73% in the last two years.
There are even reports of children as young as 12
being persuaded to comply with the misuse of their accounts.
If we can't prevent someone being recruited,
we do also monitor payments and react in the moment
as time is of the essence to trap criminal funds before the mule can move them.
We also work with many suppliers
who provide a range of ways to detect money mules.
But more than ever, we're sharing more information
across the banking industry to jointly tackle the problem.
There is more government regulation coming to banks,
which compels the whole industry to collaborate and work together.
Over the first six months of 2023,
17,286 cases involving money mule activities were filed.
And that includes 3,881 people under the age of 21.
A growing number of other age groups
are also being recruited by criminal gangs too.
Between 2017 and 2021
we've seen a 34% increase in the number of accounts
belonging to 40 to 60-year-olds displaying money mule activity.
That's really unusual.
But obviously, in trying to target all areas
and all age groups in which mule operates,
we know that genuine customers
can sometimes be impacted as we try to look for suspicion.
So it may be that we have to delay payment sometimes
just to check that we feel that the origins of that payment are genuine.
But a key priority for us is always
to limit the impact on genuine customers.
We want Barclays to make money work for the genuine people,
not the criminals.
And with that I'll hand back to you, Ross.
Thank you.
Thanks very much, Sam.
Really insightful.
Lots for us to think about, but really good to understand
the size of the problem and what we're doing to really address it.
Thank you very much.
So, we're going to move on to our next guest speaker.
Ebony, thank you for supporting this event today, it’s much appreciated.
And I'm sure the insight and thoughts you're going to share
will add so much value for everybody who's attending the event.
I'd like to ask you, first of all, if we were to rewind
12 years ago, can you share what happened to you?
What was your experience?
Thank you, Ross.
Good afternoon everyone.
What happened to me was that
I actually trusted a friend,
someone that was very close to me
who was like a brother.
We were so close.
He was like an older brother to me.
And I had borrowed him some money.
It was something as little as, I think, £50 or something.
I had just finished sixth form college.
I was going into uni and I borrowed him £50.
He said he needed it desperately and in the past I've helped him.
He's helped me.
We had like a good relationship.
So I had no reason to think anything of it.
So I borrowed him the £50
and then I kept asking him, you know, when will you pay me back?
It took a while for him to pay me back.
And then one day, when he was ready to pay me back,
he called me and told me that he has paid me back into my bank account
because he had asked me for my bank account a few weeks before that.
And then I, you know, I went to the bank, not on the same day.
I can't remember exactly the timescale,
but I eventually went to the bank to go withdraw some change out
so that I can buy some things for my son and I,
because I had just become a teenage mum as well at that time.
And it's important to note that this account was a savings account,
it was a passbook account.
Therefore, I had no access to online banking.
I had no access to mobile banking at the time.
So when he did say that he had paid the money in,
I couldn't check using my phone.
I couldn't check using laptop or internet.
I didn't have any internet access for this.
So I had to go into the bank with the passbook
and go to the cashier and ask to withdraw some money.
So all this time, I'm just thinking like 'it's legitimate money'
I didn't know it has you know, where,
I didn't know the source of where the money would come from.
I just thought it was from him.
It wasn't until about I think six to nine months later,
I was at my mum's house,
and very early in the morning, I got the loud bang at the door
and it was the police knocking on the door.
And so they basically they came to raid my mum's house.
And I was just in shock
because I was literally the teenager.
I had just had a child.
And I was just thinking, what's going on?
So they took me -
so when I got to the station and I found out what it was about,
like what it was for, for fraud.
And I was still shocked because I didn't know what was going on.
And then when I had to go to court, that is when I found out
that the money that my so-called friend
had put into my account, had belonged to someone else who they had scammed.
So I was used as, my account was used, and I was used as a mule without even knowing,
you know, without having any knowledge.
I was vulnerable and naïve.
I didn't know.
And then after that, I was very lucky
because the judge just,
they just gave me,
they gave me community service and a fine.
This was, I was very lucky to not go to prison
because I had just become a mum and I had no previous criminal record.
I had good character, you know, I was just,
a student going, getting ready to go to uni with a young son,
like I was not, I am not into the life of crime.
Yes, I was, you know, around,
I had friends, I lived on my own.
But I didn't, you know, everything was just new to me.
So, I was lucky to not go to prison.
However, my DBS, which is formerly known as a CRB,
was stained for over 12 years.
It had only become clear the beginning of this year,
which is why I'm coming out to tell my story now.
And yeah, so,
it was not a good experience for me.
I was lucky because I actually was able to still get a job, to get jobs.
I had a job within the NHS with a local authority before,
but that's because when I explained my story to each manager,
they could understand
and they could sympathise with me and see that it wasn't even my fault.
But there are some other young people out there who they don't have,
they don't have these opportunities and they don't get these chances.
So yeah, it's a very unfortunate thing that happened.
Ross, over to you.
Ebony thank you so much for sharing all of that detail,
your experience.
I can tell, just listening to your story,
you went through an awful lot, especially for someone of such a young age.
That's a lot to deal with and obviously a lot to, to take in.
I’ve got a couple of follow-up questions for you specifically,
if that's okay.
Firstly, were you aware of any other young people in your circle of friends
that were perhaps allowing their bank account to be used?
Being, were they approached at all?
Was that something you saw sort of at the time?
To be honest, it wasn't,
it wasn't as,
I think it was going on, but it wasn't as rampant as it is today.
So, you know, there was no cause for concern for me
because I didn't think it would happen to me,
because it wasn't obvious like how it is today, basically.
So I think there were few people that had been used as mules,
but it wasn't anything significant for me to be worried about
or to be, to know about basically.
Yeah, sure.
And I guess in your particular experience, in your scenario,
you were effectively lending somebody some money
and that was sort of how simple the,
you know, the sort of agreement, the transaction was.
I guess, a question, a good question to ask, if we can is,
would the benefit of hindsight and just looking back,
was there any one thing that you would say
was a red flag for you at that time,
in terms of the conversation that was being had
what was being asked of you any, specific red flag?
To be honest, there were no red flags at the time.
However, looking back on it now, a red flag would be
the fact that the money that my so-called friend had repaid me with
was more than the amount that I had borrowed him.
If that happened today, that is going to be a red flag,
because why would you be paying that three times more than what I paid you?
And also another red flag,
I mean, if back then, you know, the whole,
it wasn't, the whole online banking and mobile banking wasn't,
we didn't really use it that much back then, so.
But if it was now
and if I had mobile banking,
I will be able to check my account to see what,
you know, to see the name on the account of where the money came from.
And then that would have made me think I'll contact him
be like, you know, this is not in your name.
Whose name is this? Whose account is this?
And then I probably would, then I would have called the bank as well
and found out, and where's this money coming from?
So yeah, those, that would probably be the red flag.
Yeah, thanks Ebony.
And would you agree, with technology now,
we can manage our bank account obviously via our smartphone,
we can do that online,
we can do that 24/7.
That makes it really easy for us to stay on top of
you know, the things that go in our account, the things that come out.
But I guess the other side of the advancements in technology
means that actually young people, it's so much easier for them to be targeted.
Would you say that's the case?
Definitely.
The access to social media that young people have,
whether it's TikTok, these apps, a lot of these criminals target them through that.
So, yeah, it’s very bad to be honest.
Thanks Ebony.
So I guess from your point of view,
there's lots that you would really like to do to help others -
young people who may be vulnerable, may be at risk.
What from your point of view, what can teachers, parents,
guardians, carers, all of those people, what could they do to help prevent
these young people falling victim?
Parents, educators, teachers,
the community, to be honest, should do more of talking to the young people,
raising awareness, educating them.
Showing, even if you can just show them a video online,
show them videos, awareness videos,
you know, constantly remind them to be checking their accounts regularly
and to be very cautious, you know, just constant education,
they need financial education.
Yeah, awareness, I'll say.
Yeah, absolutely.
I guess it's making sure young people feel comfortable with
actually having that open conversation with a parent, teacher,
especially if they feel they're involved in a conversation
that just doesn't seem right, feels uncomfortable.
I think that's key.
Just before we move into the other questions we've received during the event,
so I mentioned the beginning of your charity.
So Elevate Her UK, I know coming up later this year,
you've got a campaign launching on protecting young people
from financial exploitation.
Could you just share briefly why you're launching that campaign,
what are you looking to achieve?
Okay.
Yes, that campaign is actually called ‘Don't Get Finessed’.
For those that don't know what finessed means,
don't get scammed basically.
We want to raise awareness, like I said, raise awareness on these issues
because not every young person is aware of the consequences.
Not every young person is aware of how to avoid these situations.
So that campaign will be raising awareness.
It will be educating not just young people,
it will be educating everyone in the community, teachers, parents.
The campaign is also there to
we're trying to see if we can get some policy changes as well
because some of the young people, they are vulnerable and they are,
they don't even know,
like in my case, I didn't know what was going on.
And I don't think it's fair
that I got punished for something that I didn't do or I wasn't aware of.
I think they need to stop punishing the,
like they need to actually do proper investigations
and find out the people at the top of the chain and punish them.
And I think there should be more safeguarding measures
for young people or vulnerable people,
more early intervention,
especially in the hotspot areas in London.
Not a lot of them have this financial education in schools,
so it's good that our campaign video will be used in the schools
that we go to, which are in London.
We’ll be playing these videos in school,
in the workshops that we go to, to educate them.
Yeah, and that's it really - the campaign’s just to raise awareness
and to see how we can find solutions.
Yeah, that's amazing Ebony.
I would definitely recommend everybody have a look
at their websites, so Elevate Her UK.
You'll find that online.
Amazing work that you do there and much needed
and I think just an example of how
we need to come together across the industry, across all organisations
to make sure that we can reach those people
who need the education, they need that support.
So thanks again, Ebony for sharing your experience, your story
your recommendations in terms of making sure we protect young people
before they even, you know, start being involved in these conversations,
these interactions.
So we'll now move on to some of the other questions that we've had.
So thank you for the questions you have submitted,
I'm going to pose these questions to both yourself, Sam and Ebony,
depending on the question
and I guess what's relevant from your sort of positions.
So, let me start with one of the questions we've had.
So one for you Sam.
In Ebony's case and we can't talk specifically about the case,
but in cases similar to this, would the bank not ask questions
as to the money coming in, going out of the account,
which is not in line with normal activity?
What's your view on that?
Yeah, it's a really good point.
One of the concerns from hearing Ebony's story myself was that,
you know, she's the one who's had all the impact
and the criminals got away scot-free, who's done the actual act.
And that is often the case with our money mules unfortunately, you know,
you're the front person then, the only person who can be traced
and the criminals stand behind that, unfortunately.
What I would say is the more information that mules can tell us
about how they got recruited,
who was involved, any details they can tell us
all adds to our ability to take action potentially against the real people,
the real perpetrators of the crime.
And we can feed that information to law enforcement,
you know, and hope that there could be some broader action taken.
But again, the more information that mules can give to us,
we can take that into consideration.
You know, if there's any vulnerability, exploitation
of that particular individual, we want to know about it.
And we want to give our mules, the opportunity to tell us,
you know, if there's any other circumstances involved,
that's really, really important because, you know, unfortunately,
some of our young people are very, very vulnerable, as Ebony has pointed out.
And, you know, it's not fair that they should feel
the brunt of a criminals act, essentially.
So, yeah, that would be my advice.
Tell, tell as much as possible.
Thank you Sam.
I guess a follow-up question to that one is,
if Barclays were to uncover a money mule, what is our standpoint?
Do we close their accounts with notice to close?
Would we ban customers from re-joining in the future?
What's the standpoint there?
Yeah, so typically
what would happen is that when we receive
a report that an account has received the proceeds of crime,
we have to firstly secure that bank account.
We have got a duty to obviously try to prevent those criminal funds
from being dispersed and we have a duty
the victim of that crime.
Then we would investigate our account holder.
That often involves contact with the account holder,
again, to give them the opportunity of telling us what's going on.
There could be another side to the story.
But the typical action that we would take
would be that depending on what story we do get from our account holder,
it would tend to result in the forced closure of their bank account.
Sometimes immediately,
if we find that the risk presented by the account holder is too great,
that we need to get them off our books really, really quickly.
But often we do give them notice or
we do give them another opportunity to sort of prove that
they can turn, especially if they're open and honest with us, turn,
you know, their banking around and, you know,
and use their banking accounts exactly how they should do.
If we do exit a customer,
we do mark fraud databases.
We're also compelled to do that amongst our industry partners
to ensure that we're sharing information between ourselves
and that everybody in the banking industry can see
what potential risk a mule presents to them
if they're opening, if they're deciding to open another bank account elsewhere.
And that's why some customers will find it difficult to get a bank account elsewhere,
because obviously reference to those industry databases
are referred to within the application process for a new product.
Thanks again Sam.
Ebony, just coming over to you,
so did you admit to being a mule, to the police unknowingly
or were you coerced into accepting a caution?
Is there any way you could have appealed the action that was taken
based on someone taking advantage of you?
Just wonder what your thoughts are on that one.
The thing is, I actually said not guilty all the way.
And I actually did, in the interview,
I told them everything.
I told them the truth and I told them that it wasn't me,
but still that it was what, I mean,
I have spoken to officers like years down the line recently
due to the charity work that I do with other young people that go through this.
And I asked them, officer, like, you know, why?
Why does that happen?
Why did they do it?
And they said, unfortunately, because investigations take too long
and are too costly, they usually use the account holder as the scapegoat.
So basically I was used as the scapegoat.
Yeah, sure.
Thanks again for sharing Ebony.
Just a quick question, follow-up as well Ebony is,
in your situation,
you're the person who you were talking with borrowed £50.
How much did they actually put back into your account?
I think it was like £250.
Of course, that now might look like a little bit, because I know now
a lot of these scammers are they put four figures or more,
but then it was still,
it was still something and it's still, you know,
the way it was, the source of the money was not right.
So yes, I bought them 50 and I think they put they would
put 200 or 250 back in. I'm not sure.
The thing is, I don't even actually know the exact because
when I went to the bank, I just went do what I needed to do for the shopping
and I never ever got to clear anything.
The bank just closed the account and I couldn't even take the money out.
So yeah, it was at the, in the court,
at the court hearing that I heard,
you know, what had happened
and this is how much, I think it was like 250, yeah.
Sure, thanks Ebony.
And what we do know worth sharing is that in some cases
people are given incentive to keep obviously some of the money,
or it could be that they're offered a particular item,
whether it be the latest pair of trainers or something of value.
So we do see different examples of where people
perhaps are given motivation
in order to help somebody to move this money around.
A question for you, Sam, if I can,
are we looking at biometric patterns, new tech to see if different people,
mules, are accessing the same accounts?
That's a really interesting question.
We, one of the stakeholders that we're,
suppliers that we're working with at present,
is one that offers biometric capability.
So it is an opportunity for us in the future
and probably a lot of the industry as well.
So, yes, it's definitely something that is becoming
increasingly more and more interesting to us.
We can't say that say any more than that right now.
That's great. Thanks, Sam.
Another question for you, Sam is
do you get business accounts being used for mules
as these have different limits
and are they perhaps harder to detect the patterns?
Yeah, absolutely right.
We do.
And you've hit the nail on the head.
The reason being higher transfer limits generally, you know
if you have a business account that is expected to operate, you know,
with a lot of transactions going through it,
then I guess the feeling is
that that will go under the radar a little bit more,
you know, from a monitoring point of view.
But I can to tell you that we do catch an awful lot of business banking money mules,
as well as personal money mules in Barclays.
So yeah, we try to manage our defences
across those segments quite equally,
depending on the risk that they present us,
because in one side of the business,
they will present us more in the way of volume
and the other side will present more in the way of value.
So we do manage the risk effectively across the two segments.
Thanks Sam.
Just another question for you as well.
Would you say due to the cost of living
that we need to be even more conscious and aware
of offers, of easy money
and the use of our bank account, pay more attention
as both of you have already mentioned, to what goes in and out of your account,
yeah, due to that cost of living that we're seeing?
Absolutely.
From my point of view, I think I mentioned earlier
that we've seen a 34% increase in the number of accounts
being used by 40 to 60-year-olds.
That's a really unusual age group to be involved in money muling.
If I can be honest, normally it would be it would be our,
very much younger age groups that would become involved.
So that to me could indicate that people are feeling the pinch a little,
you know, potentially
looking at this as an opportunity to make a little bit more money.
So, yes, it's absolutely a risk for those age groups.
And, you know, for anybody
who is feeling the pinch, my advice would be
easy money is not always the best way of making money.
Yeah.
Thanks again, Sam.
So a question I'm actually going to answer here is,
how do the so-called scammers get one's landline number?
We get numerous calls that are obviously a scam.
So we're talking about the general theme of scams here.
And I think to answer this question, is good just to raise awareness
that in terms of any of your data or personal information,
including telephone numbers, this can be accessed in various ways.
One of the ways could be the number of data breaches we see.
So if an organisation's details are hacked,
if they can get access to that information,
that could very easily be shared or sold on what we call The Dark Web
so organised criminal gangs may be using that information and passing it on.
But also the other piece of awareness we should definitely promote is
be very conscious about anything you share online.
So people tend to share too much information on social media
or they're not verifying some of the details
they've been asked to share in an email or a text message.
So we just need to be extra vigilant, careful about what we share online,
because that information, again, could just be harvested by a criminal.
And that could even just be someone who's being very spontaneous,
or it could be a more organised sort of targeting of certain people.
There are also directories online where you find lots of personal information.
192. com is a directory.
If you're on the electoral roll,
there's a good chance your details are going to be visible.
And that could include things like your address, your telephone numbers.
So it's a really good question, I think,
just on the theme of scams in general, good for that awareness to be shared.
I’m just going to check if there's any other questions that we've had.
Thank you for the ones that have come in,
lots to talk about.
And one of the questions we do have is do you go to schools
to educate young people from year seven upwards?
So we absolutely do proactively educate not just our customers,
but people across local communities
and that's across all of Barclays touchpoints.
So that could be through a virtual event like you're seeing today,
that could be students joining from their classroom,
an event that we deliver virtually.
I'm going to comment on some resources just very shortly
and I'll pinpoint some of the content that we have there,
which is available for all different age groups.
So certainly lots of proactive work that we're doing
and I know lots of other organisations are doing as well.
So with that,
again, thanks for everybody's questions that have come in.
We're now going to move onto some useful resources.
So let's just move onto the first resource.
So the first one is the Barclays website.
So if you go to the Barclays website,
this includes a fraud and security hub page,
to really help people stay one step ahead of the criminals.
Now, within this hub, we have a specific page all about money mules.
This is the one screenshot that you can see on screen now.
And this really does provide some excellent content and guidance.
Everything from what are money mules?
How can you be approached?
How is social media used?
What advice do we have for those people to support young people?
So do visit the Barclays website.
You can scan the QR code that you see on-screen
and you can simply search for ‘Barclays money mules’
and that will take you to the page,
that's the first listing that you see in the search results.
So do have a look at the Barclays website.
The next one,
one that the team I work in, I’m proud to say have been managing
and creating all the content
for what's called our Barclays Digital Wings platform.
So this is another great resource which is completely free
for anyone to use, includes lots of great content on fraud and scams.
And when you're on the main homepage,
which again you can access through the QR code,
or by searching Barclays Digital Wings,
you'll see on the top menu there's an option ‘Online safety’.
If you click on that one,
it takes you to what we call our ‘Staying safe online’ hub page.
This signposts to lots of great content, lots of tools, resources
that you can access to help you protect yourself in many ways.
So do have a look at Barclays Digital Wings.
Click on ‘Online safety’ for more information.
And then just a couple of others,
in terms of further support,
the first one being Victim Support.
This is a brilliant charity
that helps victims of crime providing free, confidential support.
It’s one that Barclays has a really good relationship with
and why I think this is such a great charity.
When you think about any scams, any fraud,
the experience that you go through, it's not just a financial impact on people,
it can be physical, it can affect your mental health.
So this charity does a huge amount, offers lots of great services
to help people who may have fallen victim to crime.
And this includes the hugely challenging navigation of the criminal system
and people understanding their rights as a victim of crime.
So do have a look at Victim Support.
And the second one is the ‘Don't Be Fooled’ campaign.
So Don't Be Fooled is a collaboration between UK finance and Cifas.
It aims to inform students or young people about the risks of giving out their bank details
and deter them from becoming money mules.
So lots of great content again. There’s an excellent short video
that you can play to young people, which really highlights the dangers,
the consequences that you need to think about.
So do have a look at the Don't Be Fooled websites as well.
Now, as we draw to a close,
I'm now just going to move on to what we feel
are some really key takeaways both from Sam and Ebony.
So first of all, we've heard lots from you Sam,
lots of insight, lots of guidance, lots of work we're doing.
But what would be your key takeaways for the audience?
Yeah, thank you Ross.
So my main takeaways would be that
if you're receiving any money into your account,
make sure that you know where those funds are coming from.
And don't be afraid to question
the person who's paying it to you, even those you trust,
given Ebony's experience, unfortunately.
A genuine person won't mind a little bit of questioning.
It's valid in today's environment.
The second item would be to be really wary
of urgent requests, particularly to withdraw funds.
Just pay to you really at speed.
Mules absolutely need to operate quickly
to move their criminal proceeds around the financial ecosystem.
And you'll just be supporting them if you do that.
So don't make it easy for them,
you know, be very wary of those types of request.
That would be it for me.
Thanks Ross.
Over to you Ebony.
Thanks Sam.
For me, yep, be careful who you trust.
Friends and family could be recruited by criminals,
so be very careful when doing favours that involve money.
Always check your account regularly.
Obviously, in my case, I couldn't check my account regularly
because I did not have access to online bank or mobile banking.
But nowadays, most of us do
so please check your accounts regularly, your bank statements check them regularly
just to see, you know, where money's coming from.
You might not be expecting some form of money.
Make sure you contact your bank immediately
to find out where it came from before spending it.
Because if you withdraw or transfer any money that comes from
a criminal source, you will be, you know, punished, like in my case.
And then the last thing is
do not be fooled by the thought of making quick money.
You know, there's a cost of living crisis right now,
so if you are looking for an extra income, contact your local jobcentre
because there are various job opportunities out there.
Over to you Ross.
Sam, Ebony, thank you for that.
Obviously, lots we've spoke about.
So, I think it’s really important that we just highlight what are those key takeaways,
the things that we need to share with young people.
I think if we just reflect on some of the things that we've touched on today,
what we do know is historically money mules used to visit the school gates.
They used to approach young people in person.
The world has changed.
The use of technology means that actually people
people can now sit behind a laptop, they can sit behind a phone.
They can do this targeting of young people in a different way,
which obviously makes it even harder to catch these people.
So I think that's something we really need to bear in mind.
Young people are exposed to so much online.
Social media has a real part to play in terms of
what we see being shared in terms of adverts, posts
but in the meantime, we just really need to make sure
that young people are aware of how they can be targeted.
So, I just want to say a huge thank you
both to our guest speakers for all of your insight -
Ebony, the experience you've shared has been really important
so thank you so much for joining as well.
Really encourage you to share the resources
with your wider networks, family and friends, in schools,
across the education sector,
to make sure that we can prevent more people
not to fall victim.
Such an important topic.
So a ‘big thank you’ for everybody who's joined.
All of those people who've registered for today's event,
it's much appreciated.
In the near future, there will be a playback of the event.
So do keep an eye on the Barclays website on our Barclays channels
for more information to be able to view the playback and share with other people.
But again, big ‘thank you’ for everybody who’s joined.
and we look forward to seeing you at a future Barclays event.