The Security Mentor

What do crooks do when they steal someone's online banking password?

They don't want to transfer money to their own accounts directly and leave an arrow pointing straight at them. Instead, they launder the money through intermediaries. Sometimes they're not honest about recruiting their mules, imagine that.

The scam, a truly poisonous one, is to advertise a job handling financial transfers. The pitch is that you get money into your bank account, forward it to a Western Union destination or something of the sort, and keep a commission. The reality is that you're receiving money stolen from someone else's account, forwarding it to criminals, and profiting from the crime. This could be hard to explain to the authorities.

A fellow in the UK is making a hobby of exposing money transfer fraud. He gives many examples of the dishonest advertising and tips on avoiding it (no legitimate business wants to transfer money to your personal bank account and be real, you're not getting job offers in spam).

I found this link via the folks at anti-virus firm F-Secure, who have a video about recruitment of money mules.