Have I been involved in fraud ?!

[cakeslenon6]

Hey everyone, I need some advice because I’m panicking right now.

I received a call from a friend I trust who said their account wasn’t working and they needed to make a payment for something. They asked if someone could send money to my account and then I forward it to my Revolut account so they could complete a payment through a Moonpig page. I agreed and didn’t really think anything of it at the time.

I received a transfer of £1,306 and followed their instructions. A few hours later, I tried to send the money on, but my account was suddenly restricted.

I checked my banking messages and they’re now asking for additional information about where the money came from, whether I know the person, and to provide any supporting evidence.

I’ve responded explaining what my friend told me and I’ve also sent a screenshot of the Moonpig request they mentioned. However, the conversation originally happened over the phone, so I don’t have any text messages or written proof of them asking me to do this.

I’m now really worried because I feel like I may have unknowingly been involved in fraud, and I don’t know what this means for me or what I should do next.

I have a holiday coming up next month and I’ve never experienced this before will the police get involved or would I have my account closed down what’s going to happen ?!

It’s moonpay.

Which is a crypto platform.

So the OP hasn’t just transferred money to another account, she’s been buying crypto currency, except it was a scam. So less about money laundering and more about being involved in a crypto scam.

So what exactly happened OP? Did your friend tell you that if he gave you this money to invest you would make some back when the crypto gained value?

I suspect the friend is involved in a crypto scamming racket.

he encourages people to give him money which he tells them he will “invest” for them in this great venture. Then, so the payments can’t be traced to him, he transfers the money to the OP, who is a known contact, in order for her to do his dirty work for him.

And here’s the kicker. Moonpay’s t&C’s state very clearly that even if you’re scammed, once the money has gone to them, there’s no way to get it back.

If you’re genuinely an innocent party in this then the friendship needs to be over as a starting point.

But I agree with PP, you’re not going to be prevented from travelling or have criminal proceedings brought against you. But you will almost certainly be flagged and it will affect your credit.

I’m not entirely sure what words have gone in there to cause the post to be hidden. But moonpay is essentially a crypto site.

So looks like the friend is involved in crypto fraud.

There’s no way the friend is innocent. He knows exactly what he’s doing.

Why are my posts being hidden?

Is it because I’ve said the word which is linked to moonpay? Is that c word banned?

Bloody stupid if it is, but assuming it is, if you look up what kind of site it is, that’s the kind of fraudster the OP’s friend is.

Surely you would ask your friend why he couldn't have money transferred to him?

@CoralOPwhy would I someone I’ve known for years they said they needed my help maybe I didn’t realise these thing really happen

It’s a common scam sadly and AI makes many things possible. Have you contacted your friend to find out just what’s going on?

Lesson learned, There's all sorts of scams about, you need to be a lot more careful.

You contact the bank and offer your full cooperation, including the name and phone number of your friend. If it was him he deserves to get in trouble. If it wasn't him or he was duped too then he needs to know so he can cooperate.

Is it possible it wasn't him? Could it have been a deepfake? Technology is such that people's voices can be 'spoofed' easily, sometimes after just a few words. You say he called you to ask this. Did you ever call him back at his 'known' phone number to let him know the transfer had been done?

I agree AI is too sophisticated to have been employed by a lowly school friend that's reserved for much more professional launderers unless the friend is an AI or tech whizz. Much more likely he knew he was laundering and exploited ur trust and the lack of response about what this friend has now responded with hints even more so to that

Sadly you now realise the folly of being naive - that you don’t actually know anybody, not really. Public personas can be vastly different to the person underneath and in private. Always react with caution, and cynicism, regarding financial dealings.

Talk to your bank at 9am.

I have no idea or opinion on what the friend did or didn’t do, but nobody would use AI to spoof their OWN voice in this way, you’d just make the call yourself!

Banks can become suspicious of even very small sums. A while back I paid for goods I won in a German auction with a trasfer through Moneygram, a legitimate transfer service. UK was still part of the EU in those days and the sum involved was only about 1000 euro. It triggered some kind of security alert with the transfering bank. I had to answer dozens of questions regarding the purpose of the money, where the funds had come from, where they were bing sent, and so on. Fortunately I was able to supply a PDF of the invoice I recieved from the German auction house. This exactly matched the sum I had sent. The money transfer service was not particularly helpful but a woman at the German auction house assisted me to sort it out. It took about a week. Of course the auction house wanted the funds to pay their client.

Have you phoned this friend yourself to check if this was them or not? Unfortunately you can't trust anything these days.

Hi OP its not entirely clear whats gone on here as you've had a few issues with typos etc

Can we clarify?

Who was supposed to be the final beneficiary of the money as far as you were aware? Your friend?

So a stranger (friend of friend) sends money to your standard bank account, you transfer it to your Revolut account (what reasoning did he give for needing it sending between your accounts?!) then you try to transfer it a second time into a different currency through Moonpay - to your friend? Is that correct? Or was your friend asking you to take in the money and then send someone else entirely the money in the different currency?

I'm struggling to understand how this was sold to you as this is so many steps beyond just accepting money in to hold for a friend (If someone had locked themselves out of their banking app but needed to accept a transfer and confirm receipt because they were selling large furniture face to face for example)

For reference this seems to be the only info regarding timeline etc? -
"They asked if someone could send money to my account and then I forward it to my Revolut account so they could complete a payment through a Moonpig page."

"my friend called me and said if their friend could send money to me because their account wasn’t working and because I have revolut he can request a pay from his online bank moon pay so I said yes okay that’s fine
the bank allowed the transaction to come in when I sent the money to my revolut bank and my friend did the moon pay thing a few hours later"

Thanks for that info, I'm usually good at spotting scams but never heard of this one !

A “money mule” scam is basically when criminals use someone else’s bank account to move money so the real source can’t be traced. It usually works like this:

· Money from fraud or other crime is sent into an ordinary person’s bank account.

· That person is told to pass it on — usually by bank transfer, PayPal, crypto, or cash withdrawal.

People often get recruited through fake job ads (“payment processing assistant”), social media offers of quick cash, or someone online claiming their own account is frozen. The person moving the money may not realise it’s illegal, but it’s still classed as money laundering because they’re helping disguise the origin of criminal funds.
The risk isn’t just to the criminals. The mule is the one whose bank account gets flagged. Banks can close the account, put a fraud marker on their record for six years, and in serious cases the person can be charged even if they didn’t understand what they were involved in.

That’s the basic mechanism: criminals need clean accounts, so they borrow someone else’s.

Surely the first step would be to contact your friend.

Please try not to be upset op.

Ignore the vile comments.

It's done so don't feel you have to explain yourself to posters here.

You haven't intentionally done anything wrong so just be honest and all will be OK.

You might find that you’re the one who has the loss; the money can be withdrawn from your account and returned to the person from whom it was effectively stolen, meanwhile your onward transfer can’t be unwound. So the person who is defrauded is actually you.

Banks get funny about Crypto. It is very likely you’ve been involved in supporting fraud.

Sorry this happened. I’m sure the Citizens Advice Bureau could advise. Try not to panic, I’m sure you’ll get to go on your holiday!

Wha can you buy at Moonpig that’s comes to £1300?,,,,,

Yes the c word is banned or at least MN always hides posts mentioning it for a while to check nothing dodgy being said about it.

Read the thread fully