ScamScan Dictionary

Definition of 'Money Laundering'

Money laundering is the term used for 'cleaning' stolen money by processing it through apparently legitimate transactions. The idea behind it is to make the money impossible to trace by moving it between companies and accounts

Money laundering scams are quite popular on the Internet as a method of getting money from stolen credit card details. The usual format is a spam email sent out advertising a financial processing job, normally offering a percentage of the money handled as payment (similar to a 419 scam). The criminals will then transfer the money to the target's account, and the target then transfers it out again (normally using wire money transfer), keeping a certain amount.

When the criminal's victims report the stolen money, the transfers are reversed - all apart from the target's wire money transfer, which cannot be reversed! This leaves the victims with their money back (from the reversed transactions), the criminals with at least some of the stolen money (from the wire money transfer) and the target out of pocket!

Money laundering scams are easy to spot - an unexpected 'work from home' email arrives promising money for simple financial processing work.