$1 million heist from Washington hospital uses money mules

http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/sham-australian-firm-at-centre-of-cyber-heist-20130506-2j2ln.html

A fictitious Australian company is at the centre of a cyber criminal network employing money mules in the United States on behalf of organised hackers in the Ukraine and Russia.

The hackers stole more than $1 million from a public hospital in Washington state last month.

On the same subject I found this article.

http://www.trusteer.com/blog/no-money-mule-no-problem-recruitment-website-kits-for-sale

Recruitment Website Kits for Sale ...... offers a complete mule recruitment template package. The package includes a backend administration system, web site template, spam email templates, mule correspondence templates and more.

http://www.securityweek.com/stopping-next-money-mule-how-banks-can-identify-mule-accounts-they-are-opened

This is an article describing the money mule process in some detail and describing the different methods of recruitment and stating that not all money mules are the same.

A new scheme in recent years is the vacation mules – mules that are flown in to another country by the fraudsters to open accounts in specific banks (not necessarily using their real passport). Such mules are usually flown from poorer countries, arriving to the richer ones on a student visa. And they are not just flown in on low-budget airlines. If a mule herder is required to pay the full fare, it is still lucrative enough to send them abroad to open accounts.

If this isn't happening already, which it probably is, the likelihood is that with forthcoming changes as regards eligibility to enter the UK, a new wave will be created.

A recent EU suggestion that the ability to open accounts with banks abroad should be made easier boggles my mind.