By PAUL O’DONOGHUE, Senior Correspondent
MONEY mule cases soared by 168% in the first half of 2025, according to a new study from financial crime prevention firm BioCatch.
The company’s 2025 Digital Banking Fraud Trends report found a significant rise in criminals attempting to access accounts at financial institutions.
As well as the jump in money mule cases, BioCatch also reported a “threefold rise in bots used for account opening fraud”.
“Financial institutions in the United States saw confirmed money laundering cases more than double in the first half of 2025 from the same period the year before,” BioCatch said.
“Scammers, increasingly employed or enslaved by organized crime organizations, utilize networks of these mule accounts to clean the illicit proceeds of their scams.”
BioCatch said its research “pulls data from more than 200 financial institutions in the U.S.”.
Additionally, the study also referenced a recent report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. This found that Americans lost more than $6.5 billion to investment scams in 2024.
Tom Peacock, BioCatch’s Director of Global Fraud Intelligence, said: “Scams remain far-and-away the most prevalent and most costly fraud type in the U.S.
“The bulk of those losses come from investment scams. The FBI found [these] cost Americans more than $6.5 billion last year. That number is sure to rise in 2025.”
BioCatch 2025 report highlights stablecoins
The report, available [HERE], also indicated that “blockchain-based stablecoins [are] the scammer’s currency of choice”.
It referenced Tether (USDT), the world’s largest stablecoin.
“Between January of 2020 and February of 2024, 84% of romance and investment scam proceeds were laundered through USDT,” BioCatch said.
“Bad actors can easily transfer stablecoins across centralized exchanges and decentralized platforms.” It said this allows criminals to cash out stolen funds “with minimal friction”.
Rob Autrey, BioCatch’s Director of Global Advisory for North America, said: “Stablecoins and authorized push payments (APP) are now the twin engines of real-time money movement in the fraud and money laundering space.
“Stablecoins themselves aren’t nefarious. But they frequently serve as the preferred getaway vehicle for scammers, allowing them to realize the proceeds of their crimes.”
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