What is money laundering and how can you protect yourself from it

Most people have never come into contact with money laundering and rarely hear about it. That's a good thing! To keep it this way we have summarized in this post what money laundering is, what you can do to protect yourself from it and what N26 is doing to prevent money laundering.

Money laundering is an attempt to reintegrate illegally obtained assets into the legal economic cycle. Other criminal offenses, such as fraud or identity theft, may be leading to money laundering.

As an example, money from a fraud case is deposited into a bank account and enters the legal business stream, the money is "laundered".

We recommend not to disclose any personal data such as your name, date of birth, place of birth, address, email address, etc. to third parties. This includes copies of documents such as your ID, passport, birth certificate, driver’s license, and so forth.

1. Never give your bank account or bank and credit card details to third parties. This includes your email address, your password, your N26 transaction pin, and your bank and credit card pin.
2. Be critical of information you find on third-party websites. You can usually spot false or misleading information.
3. Do not open a bank account through a third party. We don’t have cooperations with market research institutes, credit brokers located on external sites, or job and housing agencies that confirm your identity through a video call. If you come across such a website, it’s a fraud.

As a licensed bank, N26 meets regulatory requirements to prevent money laundering. This includes identity verification, ongoing transaction monitoring, and numerous other security measures.

We report any suspicious transactions that indicate the existence of money laundering, terrorist financing, or any other criminal offense to the German Financial Transaction Investigation Unit (FIU). Further investigations are then carried out by responsible law enforcement authorities.

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