The Decibel Where your money ends up after a scam
Apr 30, 2026
Alexandra Podazki, a Globe and Mail financial and cybercrime reporter, unpacks the booming black market for verified Canadian bank accounts. She outlines how accounts are bought to launder funds and why Canada is targeted. Short scenes cover recruitment of money mules, targeting of students, machine learning detection by banks, and the legal and cross‑border fallout of unwitting participants.
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Why Verified Bank Accounts Are Valuable
- Scammers prefer verified bank accounts because these have identities validated by banks and are less likely to be flagged as compromised.
- Verified accounts avoid quick lockouts that occur with hacked accounts, making them better for moving stolen funds within the country.
How People Become Money Mules
- People become money mules both knowingly and unknowingly, often recruited via work-from-home job offers and payment-processing tasks.
- Scammers ask targets to process payments through their own bank accounts, turning them into intermediaries without technical hacking.
Student Mailed Cash Envelope Believing It's Legal Help
- An immigration-board case described a student told to open mail with $15,000 and forward documents, unaware it contained scam proceeds.
- They believed they were helping a lawyer and were asked not to look inside, then mailed cash-filled envelopes in Brampton.