Wirex CEO Says Money Mules Are a Massive Issue in FinTech and Crypto
In an insightful interview with Cryptonews, Pavel Matveev, CEO and co-founder of popular global digital payment platform Wirex, discussed what money mules are and how big of a problem they pose in the crypto and FinTech industries. The short answer is: big.
He further told us how these fraudsters sell real challenger banks’ accounts on the dark web, how Wirex finds them, and what a solution to this issue may be.
Matveev also briefly touched on the incoming bull market and Wirex’s plans for this year.
This is what he told us.
Money mules are a widespread issue in FinTech and banking. And Matveev told Cryptonews that this problem overlaps with crypto.
Money mules are usually young people, typically between 18 and 22. They have valid documents, including an ID and proof of residence.
Criminals who aim to commit money laundering hire these young individuals to commit fraud and/or cycle money through accounts open in FinTech companies.
Most of the time, money mules know what they’re doing. But they do it anyway:
“maybe because they’re young, or maybe because they need money, or maybe because they just don’t understand consequences.”
It rarely happens that they are unknowingly pulled into criminal activities, becoming victims themselves.
That said, challenger banks, such as Revolut, N26, and Wise, remain their main targets. However, Matveev said,
“We have reached a point in the industry where a lot of FinTech companies have crypto, in one form or another.”
Therefore, it’s unsurprising that money mules have made their way into this novel industry as well.
However, money mules can’t ‘do their business’ in crypto alone: there is always a connection with fiat. They need to exchange it at some point.
That said, Wirex’s CEO argued that this
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