Police have warned parents that thousands of children are being used as 'money mules' by criminal gangs to launder stolen money in their bank accounts.

Officers in London are telling parents to monitor their children's accounts amid concerns they could be falling victim to such crimes either through force or when offered payment.

This kind of fraud usually sees the young person allowing their bank account to be used to move criminal money, making it harder for the authorities to track. Criminals will offer children cash, sometimes as little as £50, to transfer 'dirty money', according to The times. 

Figures from fraud prevention service Cifas show the number of 'misuse of facility' frauds involving a person under 21 has risen year-on-year.

Cifas said there were 4,222 such cases in the first half of 2017, compared with 2,143 in the first part of last year.

It also reported that 65 per cent of the 17,040 incidents of that type in the UK in the first six months of this year were committed by people aged under 30. It was earlier reported that high street banks are losing the battle against fraud as criminals switch tactics to directly target customers. Efforts by lenders to bolster their IT defences against hackers have simply encouraged fraudsters to bombard individual customers with scams, according to Financial Fraud Action UK.

Despite investing millions in tackling fraud, losses from fraud rose last year as banks became less effective at preventing scams.

Losses from fraud on cards and credit cards jumped by 9 per cent to £618million last year – while total fraud including online scams – increased 2 per cent to £768.8million.