DD has had large sums of money put into her account

[MummyInTheNecropolis]

I noticed she had been spending a lot recently, and when questioned she said it was money she had saved up. I was suspicious so opened her bank statement today and she has received £500 from someone I’ve never heard of, in 6 different payments all made in the same day. She claims this must have been paid to her by mistake and she lied because she knew she shouldn’t be spending it. I don’t believe her, but I can’t think why someone would be paying her this amount?

I am planning to phone the bank but I don’t think they’ll be able to tell me much. I wondered if anyone here might have any ideas? DD is 14.

This thread has opened my eyes wide open.....

Can you tell from the statement if the money was paid in by cheque, bank transfer or cash?

It's unlikely to be cash payment. The majority of banks stopped third party deposits more then a year ago.

Could we just remind everyone that we don't allow troll hunting?

For what it's worth, this OP has been a regular Mumsnet poster for more than 12 years, and has never given us any reason at all to suspect she isn't genuine.

As others have pointed out this is a massive safeguarding issue. Best thing to do is make sure your build trust with your daughter. Don't force it out of her if it is going to cause complications, she just needs to know your on her side whatever. The police do need to get involved, she will be a victim no doubt or if she has done something wrong - well she is still a minor. Worst case scenario its a warning.
If you don't feel comfortable contacting the police please please please contact her school first thing on Monday morning. The safeguarding lead will be able to make all the contact needed, they have been trained to do this and have probably faced this situation loads of times already. They will be your adult support the whole way which you also need. But you need to support your daughter, reassure her, and build up trust.
Just let the professionals deal with it.

Tbh it's more likely the money has been paid into her bank by mistake and she's panicking because she's either been spending it or wanting to keep it.

I'd go into the bank on Monday and go from there, as she's 14 I'm sure you can do this without her consent as you're her appointee.

I work for a bank and once dealt with a complaint from a mother whose daughter had been doing this (she initially denied it to her mother too). The daughter’s account was flagged as being link to a fraudster known for money laundering. Her accounts were closed and the money confiscated. She was so scared about what the fraudster would do after his money was confiscated. I don’t know what happened to her. It seems like easy money to teenagers but they have no idea how dangerous it can be.

I just wanted to drop my own story here as a warning my daughter was a victim of sexual grooming at 15 she was persuaded by an older man to perform a sex act on him in his car for money. She met him in the car park of a Tesco doing an errand for me and they communicated on Snapchat. The day it happened she had told me she was going to be with some friends and do revision for their GCSEs.
It can happen and it does happen even if you always know where they are and they're not often away from you. Even when you think they'd never do something like that because they're too smart.
I highly recommend you get the police involved, By pushing the deets and squares thing you may end up with her confessing to something she didn't do in order to cover something she did.

Agree you need to warn the school, especially as she has told you she knows of others who are doing it.

KilljoysDutch I'm sorry that that happened to your dd. It's scary how vulnerable teens are, even if they appear to be sensible and clued up.

The point is if you wait for the bank or police to flag this up as criminal activity it will be a lot worse. You need to act now by reporting it.

As I’ve said, it will be reported to police first thing tomorrow morning. I am not waiting any longer than that and of course the bank need to know, whether it affects her credit or not. I will let school know as well, I already have a good relationship with the safeguarding lead for various reasons not really related to any of this. Suffice to say, this is not the first time DD has given me cause for concern.

Good luck.

Agree with the poster who said she may admit to the money mule thing because she thinks it’s the lesser of two evils? The point that makes me think it wasn’t this is that she was spending the money, whereas if it was money laundering surely you would have seen the money coming back out again, either as cash or transfer?

I highly recommend you get the police involved, By pushing the deets and squares thing you may end up with her confessing to something she didn't do in order to cover something she did.

Wise words Dutch and I'm really sorry to hear your story.
Are you able to get into your DD's social media op? Your dd might have total privacy normally but this is serious and you need to know exactly what she's gotten into.

I have checked all of her social media, messages, emails and internet history. Nothing concerning but of course she could have just deleted anything incriminating.

it it maybe these short term loans with extortionate interest.. just a thought

I’ve just had another thought. It wouldn’t be something like her selling stuff on Depop? Although she’d likely admit to that.

Are you sure about the second phone ? You can buy a basic smartphone for £20 and if she's being groomed or sugar babying then it's much easier to use this second phone.
Many teens have multiple social media accounts- one where you're friends with your parents and a secret one is very common ime. Are you sure that she doesn't have more than one account?
Turning off the wifi will only help if she has a PAYG phone and no data left.

Hi.

My other half asked me to pass this message on after falling on this message in an unrelated Google search.

He says that she is likely falling victim of a money laundering scam. It's where, likely on Instagram or snapchat, they befriend someone who offers to send them money.

They send multiple payments (day three sets of £1,000) and then do one of the following (there are variations however):

1. Get the person to send money back but they keep a percentage of it. This effectively "cleans" the money as they will move this same transaction between 5-10 people before withdrawing it to a new account.

1. They send the money and get the person to buy tangible assets and they then have them delivered to a mule address (as an example AirBnB or hotel etc). They usually tell the purchaser to buy stuff for themselves too; further implicating them in the laundering scam. Unknowingly.

1. They send the money and tell them to spend it, wait for the product, return the product (or cancel order) and then return the money (minus a few quid for themselves) so that it's been through the "system" a few times.

The aim of the game is to make the tracking and tracing of where the money originated difficult to track based on irregular patterns and transfers.

My partner knows this as he works in digital security. If your DD is on Snapchat Instagram or Facebook it's likely they're being manipulated this way.

Explain it to them. Explain why it's bad, and say that any money then have send back and just block all contact with this person. Make a point of saying it's a criminal offence. Scare her off a bit. Tell her to tell her friends as usually this is instigated by a friend "recommending" this person to them - why wouldn't they, it's free money!

Whilst it's very unusual, my partner wouldn't rule out photos being exchanged for money too. The dark web has an awful way of surfacing on social media and catching the attention of the naive.

Tell the police. Call the bank and claim safeguarding issues.

Partner happy to answer questions, he might have to even create an account.

If you speak to the police you’re going to completely lose her trust, in these situations that’s what you don’t want to do- push her away.

Of course a 14 year old would delete anything incriminating.

Does she use tiktok? Could you look at her uploaded content to see if there’s any clues?

I think it's unlikely to be deets and squares now because you'd see signs of her paying into someone's account or withdrawing it to give it to them in person. I don't think you're supposed to spend the money that they deposit- how much of the £500 is gone?

Sadly I do think that the other guesses might be more accurate.

I remember a post on here where someone's teen son gifted a glamour girl expensive knee high boots from a wishlist in exchange for her posting pics posing in these boots. I'd be leaning towards something sex related unless she can show you proof otherwise.

Good luck OP, it sounds like you like you're going to do everything you can to get this sorted.

I had no idea about deets and squares and I'm sure many parents reading this are in the same boat so - if anything - thank you for bringing it to our attention.

It's bloody scary. 14 is still so young.

I can't see it being money laundering either for the relatively paltry sum of £500. I'd say photos or videos.

The payments all went in on 23rd June. No other payments before or since (I have been through all of her statements.) I’m certain she doesn’t have another phone, but even if she did she will not be out of my sight now so wouldn’t be able to use it anyway.

That does seem to be a banking error, still I'm sure they'll co operate seeing the age of the child and the police would be helpfull too..

www.safe4me.co.uk/2019/06/04/deets-squares-online-scam-targeting-children-as-young-as-11/

From that site..

The scam is known as ‘Deets’ and ‘Squares’ – ‘Deets’ being slang for bank details and a ‘Square’ being a credit or debit card.

Criminals are asking young victims, as young as 11 years old, to receive money into their account and transfer it to someone else – or in some cases, asking them to withdraw it in cash and hand it over in person.

While this can seem tempting for young people as a means to make money, especially students or those on low incomes, victims are actually breaking the law and could be ‘unknowingly’ laundering the proceeds of crime which runs the risk of a conviction and a ruined credit history which can affect future life opportunities.

You'd think that the banks would have software to detect patterns like this if  for instance i use my credit card for an odd out of my normal habit's transaction they soon query it with me!

WTF can't they do the same thing here and query it with a childs parents or gaurdians?.