relief programs to help businesses have found a convenient way to launder the money: they’re opening accounts with at least four online investment platforms, law enforcement officials said.
“The thieves are loving this stuff. This has been the financial crime bonanza act of 2021,” said Charles Intriago, a money laundering expert and former federal prosecutor. Criminals are taking advantage of how easy it is to sign up for accounts, as well as the relative anonymity compared with opening a bank account, he said.
In other cases, law enforcement officials said, the criminals use what’s called a “synthetic identity,” which is a fictitious Social Security number tied to a real person, or “mules” who are in on the scheme. Records show an “ACH reversal” three days after the account was opened, Pena said. That means the transfer was reversed.
In a statement, Chase Chief Communications Officer Amy Bonitatibus said: “We actively monitor for signs of fraud and quickly take action to protect our customers. In this case, we immediately identified suspicious activity on the account, which helped prevent money from being withdrawn or transferred.”
Rick McDonell, executive director of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists, said he is not surprised by this form of fraud. A Robinhood spokesperson said: “We are laser focused on preventing fraud before it happens and our fraud and security teams have been working with law enforcement to mitigate and address this industry-wide problem. Like other brokerages and financial institutions, Robinhood verifies new customer information across various data sources, and requires government-issued IDs as appropriate.”
In addition, the company said it has a “range of safeguards and multiple layers of security in place for detecting fraudulent accounts and subsequent transactions. By design, some of our protections are visible and some are not. To help ensure the integrity of our security practices, it’s not appropriate for us to comment further on those specific safeguards.”Some fraudsters who use online investment platforms don’t even bother to steal an identity.
Geez
So much for your futures, grandkids.
That’s why we have the FBI
how many of them have connections to the previous administration
The same government are the one stealing the money, blame them cos they're evil...
Yikes