Revealing scams and finding the fraudsters is like a big puzzle. The findings of many victims from different jurisdictions must be combined with the results of various law enforcement agencies, analyzed, and evaluated. This is what FinTelegram does. The Blue Trading scam is a huge big puzzle designed by smart fraudsters. The UK Action Fraud and the UK National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) recently delivered another piece of the puzzle. NFIB has followed the money and believes to have found the origin of the Blue Trading may be in Japan.
Blue Trading of Japanese origin
The crime reviewers at NFIB made inquiries into Blue Trading’s UK connections and found that their UK bank accounts were money mules that may be used for money laundering or proceeds of crime. The origin of the fraud appears to be Japan.
Apparently, there were no viable inquiries resulting from researching an alleged Blue Trading UK address. It was found to be a restaurant that has been there since 2016. According to Action Fraud, it is quite easy for any suspect to register an address with Companies House without needing to prove where they claim to be.
The multi-jurisdictional issue
The findings of NFIB confirm FinTelegram Research. The Blue Trading scam has used deployed money mules – regulated and illegal payment processors – in various jurisdictions to launder the money of their victims. Unfortunately, law enforcement agencies are bound by their national borders and cannot easily conduct multi-jurisdictional law enforcement actions.
In this very context, FinTelegram positions itself here as a private law information hub and data hub with the mission to support national law enforcement and facilitate multi-jurisdictional investigations. With the support of whistleblowers and victims. We call that actionable financial intelligence.
About Action Fraud
Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting center for fraud and internet crime. It takes crime and information reports on behalf of the police and gives advice and fraud prevention guidance. Action Fraud does not have investigation powers, however, the reports taken by Action Fraud are sent to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) which is run by the City of London Police.
