‘Most won’t realize that what they’re doing is potentially criminal,’ an expert said.
Identity fraud has surged in recent years, with industrial-scale cyber scams being perpetrated against millions of individuals in the United States and other parts of the West.
Most of the data used to carry out the scams is stolen by hackers from banks and other institutions, but there is now an indication that some young people, unaware of the long-term risks, are willingly selling their data to cyber criminals.
Last month, Cifas, a fraud prevention service in the UK, published its latest update, which highlighted the issue of young people selling their data.
Cifas Director of Policy, Strategy and Communications Simon Miller told The Epoch Times that the non-profit had noticed a big increase in “muling,” a practice in which an individual allows their bank accounts to be used to transfer the proceeds of crime or launder money.
“What we’ve noticed is that muling is evolving and changing, in response to regulatory and policy initiatives,” Miller said. “Increasingly, people are being recruited to launder money from their accounts, young people particularly, approached to sell elements of personal data, which is then used either as a basis for criminals to open accounts in their names or [for the] creation of synthetic data identities.”
Lure of ‘Easy Money’
Miller said young people often think it is easy money.
“People fall into traps; there’s a lot of peer pressure with these things, most won’t realize that what they’re doing is potentially criminal,” he said.
Miller said the affected individuals were overwhelmingly of student age.
“So, old enough to have access to financial products, which obviously makes them attractive, but young enough to be, in most cases, unaware of [the] consequences of what they’re doing or have done, and the long-term impacts of having sold elements of their data or their identity.”
He added that this is a new trend Cifas had noticed, and the problem isn’t confined to the UK.
“If people are being approached and targeted online in the UK, you can guarantee it will be happening in the U.S. as well, and probably also Australia, New Zealand, and other English-speaking countries, and a little later down the curve in other European nations as well.”
Mary Ann Miller, a fraud and cybercrime executive adviser with Prove, told The Epoch Times she was already aware of people selling their data in the United States.
“Absolutely, it’s a thing in the U.S.,” she said. “People are allowing their own identity to be used. However, it’s much more scalable if you use others’ identities.”
