Just a simple wire transfer. easy money. Really???????

You may be tempted to take a money transfer job for a few extra bucks. It’s easy work; all you have to do is forward payments from your bank account to somebody else. Unfortunately, money transfer jobs are often scams. Find out how money transfer businesses can cause problems for you.

Too Good to Be True?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Money transfer jobs are no exception. Consider how easy they are: you get to keep a cut of everything the money transfer business sends to you, and you can do it in your bathrobe.
What could go wrong with a simple money transfer job? Read on to find out.

Money Laundering

In some cases, money transfer jobs are part of a money laundering operation. Criminals around the world want to get money into certain bank accounts, but they can’t transfer it in traditional ways or walk into the bank with piles of cash (red flags will pop up, putting the operation at risk).
Money transfer jobs help them 'launder' the money or hide its origin. Your account is clean, you’re an upstanding citizen, and nobody has any reason to suspect you’re up to something illegal. By funneling funds through your account, money gets into the banking system without problems.
Your money transfer job may help a variety of criminals that you’re not interested in helping: terrorists, embezzlers, stolen property and drug rings, and others. In this case, you’re known as a money mule.

Your Risk

What’s the risk of taking a money transfer job? Criminals get access to your bank information. They can use it to try to drain your account, and you may be charged with helping them do whatever they’re up to.
You may also get scammed by the money transfer business. As payments come and go, you and your bank see the transactions as routine events. The bank clears funds for you quickly, and you forward payments without checking to be sure the funds are truly cleared in your account.

• Clearing Checks - Risks and Scams

Someday a larger than usual payment may come through, which you forward without hesitation. That may be the one that doesn’t clear. When your bank reverses the bad deposit from your account (and you already forwarded the payment), you’ll be sitting on a loss.

Tips

Be very cautious about money transfer jobs. Consider:

• What kind of business would hire you (a complete stranger) to handle their money?
• Are you getting paid a reasonable rate for what you do, or is this too good to be true?
• Why does the business need to move money through your personal account - don’t they have a business account for that?