Table of content

What is a mule account?
The penalties for using a mule account?
Opened an account, but not intentionally?
How to fix it?

What is a mule account?

A “horse account” refers to an account opened for illegal transactions or for some other benefit. It’s a real account opened according to the procedures of normal account opening. However, those who use such accounts are often professional criminals, not the actual owners of the accounts. Typically, criminal gangs tend to hire others to open these horse accounts on their behalf. They use these accounts to receive and transfer money under someone else’s name, concealing their true identities, making it difficult to trace the perpetrators.

The penalties for using a mule account?

It is considered an offense under the Cybersecurity Act B.E. 2566, which specifies that :

The owner of a horse account and the horse number.

• The punishment shall be imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or a fine not exceeding 300,000 baht, or both imprisonment and fine.

Anyone who engages in solicitation or advertisement to facilitate the buying, selling, renting, or lending of deposit accounts, electronic cards, electronic money accounts, as well as registered phone numbers under the name of another person.

• The punishment shall be imprisonment for a term of 2 to 5 years, or a fine of 200,000 to 500,000 baht, or both imprisonment and fine.

And money laundering offenses.

• The punishment shall be imprisonment for a term of 1 to 10 years, or a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 baht, or both imprisonment and fine.

Opened an account, but not intentionally?

In principle, the offense is similar to that of individuals who knowingly accept contracts to open horse accounts. However, if proven in court or if there is evidence confirming that there was no intention to open a horse account, one may face criminal liability as an accessory to the offense. This punishment can be up to two-thirds of the penalty for the offense related to the horse account, depending on the discretion of the judge.

How to fix it?

• When we suspect that we might be deceived into transferring money into a horse account, we can initially check the list of account names and horse numbers through Google and Facebook searches. This is because nowadays, there are good citizens and individuals who have previously fallen victim posting warnings about the names of horse accounts that should be avoided transferring money to.
• I recommend checking the list of horse accounts on the website www.blacklistseller.com or installing the Whoscall application for preliminary screening. This can be useful when receiving calls from unfamiliar numbers.

Article by Kroek Lawyer