Real-time payment (RTP) systems were designed for speed, convenience, and efficiency. But in the wrong hands, they’ve become a powerful tool for laundering illicit funds.
As financial criminals adapt to the era of instant transactions, they’re increasingly abusing payment platforms, QR codes, utility bill services, and prepaid cards to rapidly layer and transfer funds with minimal detection. This blog breaks down four major laundering methods exploiting RTP infrastructure today—and what institutions need to watch for.
1. QR Code-enabled Money Laundering via Empty Package Scams
Criminals are increasingly leveraging QR code-enabled payment platforms to mimic legitimate e-commerce transactions. The scam typically involves generating fake sales with empty package shipments—where a QR code is used to facilitate a payment between two parties under the guise of a real purchase. Once the transaction is completed, the funds appear clean, and the fraudster has successfully masked the source of illicit money.
These operations are often scaled through shell accounts on e-marketplaces or social platforms, making detection harder. Traditional AML controls may not pick up on these isolated, low-value transactions unless patterns across users and vendors are monitored in aggregate.
2. Laundering with Prepaid Cards and Payment Networks
Prepaid cards are commonly marketed as convenient tools for budgeting or gifting, but they’ve also become a discreet channel for laundering illicit funds. Criminal groups often purchase prepaid cards in bulk, fund them with proceeds from illegal activities, and use them across merchant networks or transfer the balances via real-time payments.
The anonymity and reloadable nature of many prepaid products make them ideal for layering funds across institutions. Once loaded, these cards can be used to make staged purchases or even withdrawn through ATMs in low-monitoring jurisdictions.
3. Exploiting Utility Bill Platforms to Layer Gambling Proceeds
Organised syndicates are turning to utility and fintech bill payment platforms as alternative laundering channels. These platforms allow users to make high-frequency, low-value transactions that seem legitimate on the surface—like topping up mobile balances or paying electricity bills.
In some cases, syndicates even operate multiple accounts across platforms to bulk process illicit earnings, often derived from illegal gambling or online gaming scams. By using fintech intermediaries with less stringent KYC or transaction monitoring practices, they effectively blur the trail of dirty money and exploit oversight gaps in the digital economy.
4. Structured Layering through Instant Payment Fragmentation
One of the most sophisticated tactics in RTP laundering is structured layering—where criminal proceeds are rapidly divided into smaller amounts and routed through multiple bank accounts, wallets, or even merchants in seconds.
The speed and convenience of real-time payments mean funds can cross jurisdictions and ownership layers in minutes, leaving little time for detection. This approach exploits the lack of standardised monitoring across payment rails and the difficulty of linking seemingly innocuous microtransactions across unrelated accounts.
Responding to the Threat: What Financial Institutions Can Do
To combat these risks, financial institutions must respond with equal speed and intelligence. This includes:
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Implementing advanced transaction monitoring systems that analyse real-time payment patterns.
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Adopting scenario-based typologies that reflect how laundering is operationalised across QR codes, utility payments, and prepaid cards.
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Enhancing customer and merchant due diligence, especially in sectors with rapid onboarding and fragmented oversight.
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Collaborating across institutions using federated learning and shared insights to detect structuring and layering techniques at scale.
Conclusion: Staying Ahead in the Instant Payment Arms Race
Real-time payments have revolutionised financial services, but they’ve also introduced a new frontier for financial crime. From QR scams and prepaid laundering to fragmented layering, the velocity and complexity of today’s laundering tactics demand smarter detection.
Solutions like Tookitaki’s FinCense platform bring an edge—applying federated intelligence, AI-driven scenario detection, and community insights to flag sophisticated laundering schemes across RTP rails. As financial institutions continue to embrace instant payments, equipping compliance teams with agile, intelligent tools will be critical to staying ahead of the threat.
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