Fraud continues to impact the payments space. And according to a recent article by Security Week, money mules are a big part of this acceleration of fraud.
“Money mules are often dismissed as a rather benign part of criminal activity – but they are an important part of channeling illicit funds from the source of crime to the ultimate destination – whether that is criminal gangs, terrorists or even adversarial nation states.”
Artificial intelligence (AI) can help combat this issue, particularly when trying to mitigate it. This technology can help banks and payment service providers identify and potential financial crimes, and keep track of it.
The latest generation of both AI and machine learning (ML) monitoring systems are providing much relief to institutions looking to address money laundering schemes. AI-based systems can support financial institutions in two areas: payment and application fraud. In payment fraud, the use of behavioral monitoring can detect when an account has been created for fraudulent purposes. For application fraud, Know Your Customers (KYC) principles are used to identify any attempts of someone trying to open an account for fraudulent purposes.
In the article from Security Week, Duncan Sandys, CEO of P20, further explained why this issue is top-of-mind:
“The widespread reliance on money mules for money laundering gives banks and other payment service providers an opportunity to identify a variety of financial crimes. Finding the money mules and following the money can help fight fraud, identity theft and cybercrime, while preventing stolen money ending up in criminals’ hands,” he said.