VoIP fraud - the cleanest form of money laundering

You’ve seen us write about revenue sharing VoIP fraudon this blog before. But here’s a new application we’ve been hearing about: money laundering.

Money laundering is, of course, the process of concealing the source of money obtained by illicit means, often by moving the money across international borders. Reports are now surfacing that money launderers have taken a page from VoIP fraudsters’ book and put the revenue sharing VoIP fraud scheme to work for them. The updated scheme looks like this:

1. The criminal sets up a revenue sharing number in Country A.
2. The criminal proceeds repeatedly to call his own newly created number from Country B.
3. The criminal receives a huge bill for his international calls and simply pays it.
4. The criminal collects the money he just payed himself in Country A.

Using this method, it appears to authorities in Country A that the criminal is a simple telecom provider, and the authorities in Country B just see someone paying off their very large legitimate phone bill. The money has been successfully moved from Country B to Country A.