Antecedents of Complying to Fraudulent Activities Based on Perspectives of Money Mule

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-756-4_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Antecedents; fraudulent activities; money mule; scammer; victimization

Abstract

A money mule facilitates the movement of illicitly obtained funds on behalf of, or at the direction of, another party. Criminals normally recruit money mules using fake job advertising, and create social media posts about opportunities to make money quickly. The central problem to be researched in this study is the rising number of money mules in Malaysia. Vulnerability to scams can arise from a lack of familiarity with scams or a lack of comprehension of a subject related to a specific fraud. However, having more prior information can also make one more vulnerable, as it might lead to a lower degree of caution in the given situation. The objective of this study is to explore the antecedents complying to fraudulent activities from the perspective of money mule. In-depth interview with money mule were a good way to understand the details of scam process, including the victims’ traits and methods used by the criminals. Nine informants make up the sample size for this study. The interview approach is conducted using in-depth interviews to gather comprehensive information pertaining to the antecedents of complying with fraudulent activities from the perspective of money mule. Based on the data analysis, the informant affirms that the antecedents of complying with fraudulent activities are due to financial circumstances and personal circumstances. Financial circumstances include extra income, debt, high commitment, easy money, and losing a source of income. Personal circumstances include desperateness, lack of knowledge, exploring new things, trust, and irrationality.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nurul Zaitul Itri Alias
AU  - Nik Adzrieman Abdul Rahman
AU  - Azlina Kamaruddin
AU  - Nathasya Mohd Kamal
AU  - Wan Nor Hidayah Wan Afandi
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/05/29
TI  - Antecedents of Complying to Fraudulent Activities Based on Perspectives of Money Mule
BT  - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Communication and Media (i-COME 24)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 123
EP  - 133
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-756-4_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-756-4_13
ID  - Alias2025
ER  -