Tutti.ch educates users about "money mule" ads in prevention campaign
The classifieds portal Tutti.ch is joining forces with the police in a prevention campaign against fraudulent "money mule" ads, which lure users for criminal acts with supposedly easy ways to earn money.
Since June 2019, Tutti.ch has placed two fake "Money Mule" ads on the platform itself. So far, over 130 people have already responded to the fake ads. Users who fall into the trap are always informed by Tutti.ch and made aware of the risks.
In the two advertisements, jobs are advertised that offer good earnings with little effort in renowned companies. "Tutti.ch is a safe marketplace with over 16 million visitors per month and around 2 million advertisements. Unfortunately, the high user numbers also make the platform attractive to people with dishonest intentions. For this reason, we would like to increasingly actively sensitize our users to known scams, which fortunately are still the exception," explains Dejan Dojcinovic, CEO of Tutti.ch.
How "Money Mule" ads work
So-called "money mule" ads by scammers promise an easy-earned income: For example, users have to accept money for a supposedly reputable company into their own account and then transfer part of it to unknown accounts. Money of illegal origin is thus laundered through the online user's account and transferred abroad. In contrast to other online fraud attempts, the users who fall for this are not only victims, but also make themselves liable to prosecution as "money mules". More information on this topic is also available at Homepage of the Swiss Crime Prevention.
Among other things, Tutti.ch advises users never to forward money on behalf of third parties to recipients they do not know in detail and not to withdraw money from their own account after a transfer whose origin is not known beyond doubt. In addition, people should immediately report to the police if they suspect they have been the victim of fraud. The classifieds portal has published further security tips on the Website is switched on.
Cooperation with police to be expanded
Tutti.ch has been working closely with the cybercrime and prevention departments of the Zurich cantonal police for several years to protect users and take security measures at an early stage. Particularly in the area of prevention, cooperation is to be expanded in order to educate users about fraud. In addition to the cooperation, an internal fraud team, among other things, takes care of fraud attempts.
Image: Swiss Crime Prevention
