Nacha Campaigns Take Aim at Money Mules and Tout Benefits of Direct Deposit

With money mule activity on the rise, Nacha, the governing body for the automated clearing house network, has released an infographic to educate consumers about unwittingly becoming money mules. Money mules help criminals launder money from online scams, fraud or crime, such as human and drug trafficking, unknowingly or knowingly.

The infographic was developed by Nacha’s Payments Innovation Alliance, which develops educational materials, resources and tools for payment professionals to fight financial fraud and communicate risks to consumers. The infographic will be made available to financial institutions.

While criminals will recruit money mules to help launder proceeds derived from online scams and fraud and pay them a commission, many consumers unwittingly become money mules because they believe they have a trusted relationship with the individual who is reaching out them through email or social media.

The infographic poses seven questions to help consumers determine if they have been approached to become part of a money mule scheme, such as did they receive an unsolicited email offering an opportunity to earn easy money. Financial institutions can customize the infographic with their contact information to facilitate reporting of suspected money mule schemes.

Consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023, a 14% increase from the previous year, according to Federal Trade Commission.

In addition to raising awareness about money mules, Nacha has launched a campaign highlighting the benefits of direct deposit. Some 93% of American workers and nearly all Social Security recipients receive payment via direct deposit, according to Nacha.

The campaign provides examples of real people that benefit from direct deposit for wages earned and other types of payments. Two use cases highlighted are of a single mother that uses split deposit to direct part of her wages to a savings account for her son’s education, and a small business owner that pays employees by direct deposit, which frees him from manually cutting paychecks.

In its most recent ACH report, Nacha says direct deposit volume increased 3.3% in volume on 8.3 billion transactions in 2023 over 2022.

“Part of the beauty of direct deposit is its ability to reach people at any U.S. bank or credit union,” Nacha president and chief executive Jane Larimer says in a statement. “It’s reliably working for Americans, but they often don’t realize it. With this campaign we want to raise awareness of the ease and effectiveness with which Direct Deposit gets payments into bank accounts, reducing worry and giving us more time so we can focus on living life.”