Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: money muling, courier jobs, gaming accounts and sextortion, a memo for UK teenagers and parents by Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: a two-column memo for teenagers and parents

Offers of quick cash turn up where teenagers already are: Snapchat stories, gaming lobbies, comments under clips. The sum looks modest and the job looks trivial. The first payment sometimes really lands, and that payment is what makes a young person part of somebody else's operation.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov wrote the memo as a conversation between two people at the kitchen table. Every section starts with a paragraph for the teenager, straight and without preaching, then one for the parent or carer: what to look out for, what to ask, whom to ring. The tables are laid out the same way.

For the teenager: whether you take on a side job is up to you, and this sheet bans nothing. It shows where a job ends and a criminal record begins, and how to get out if you are already in it.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests reading it together, one section an evening. Seizing the phone and cross-examining tends to mean you hear about the next offer last.

Every figure in Zavialov's memo has a date and a named source, so you can check it yourself on the NCA, FCA or police website. If a number or a reporting route changes, go by the official page; a screenshot passed round a group chat is too easy to get wrong.

Lending out your account: what money muling means in the UK

The pitch is simple: let someone use your bank account or card for a week and keep a share. The NCA says that around 6 in 10 money mules are under 30 and most are recruited between 17 and 24, often through job offers on forums, emails, social media or pop-up adverts promising quick and easy earnings.

For the teenager: the money passing through your account belongs to fraud victims. The NCA warns that mules frequently end up with a criminal record and can face prison, a fine or community service. A criminal record at 18 can follow you into university applications and job interviews.

The FCA puts it in one line: no legitimate company will ask to move its money through your personal account. Being part of a mule scheme can cost you access to a bank account and lead to prosecution.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov would like you to follow the money and leave the private messages private. A run of small payments from people you have never heard of, an unfamiliar banking app or a second card that never came up in conversation is worth a chat this evening.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on what banks do about mule accounts

Banks are closing these accounts in large numbers. Figures the FCA published on 23 September 2026 show firms shutting 238,396 suspected mule accounts in 2025, compared with 233,269 in 2024 and 184,935 in 2023. Among under-25s the figure was 85,425.

According to UK Finance, 12,438 money mules had their activity disrupted during 2025. The fraud prevention service Cifas, an industry body, says 18 percent of the money mules it recorded in 2025 were under 21. Losing a first account at that age makes ordinary things, such as getting paid for a Saturday job, much harder.

For the teenager: you can walk away at any point. Stop replying, do not move any money that has come in, ring your bank on the number on the back of the card and tell them someone else has used the account. Keep the chats, numbers and account details.

For the parent: the short clip below covers the same ground in half a minute. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov reduces it to three facts: 6 in 10 mules are under 30, 85,425 accounts of under-25s were closed in 2025, and no genuine employer moves money through a personal account. If your child's account is frozen, talk to them first, then to the bank.

Courier jobs: collecting cash for a stranger

Some adverts pay for collecting a package or an envelope and passing it on. In courier fraud the envelope holds the savings of someone who has just been told by a fake police officer or bank that their money is at risk. City of London Police said on 15 July 2025 that courier fraud cost victims more than £21 million in the previous financial year, across 1,797 reports, with an average loss of just over £12,000.

The same force is clear that the police and banks never send a courier to collect cards, cash or valuables. Anyone doing the collecting is the one face the victim sees.

For the teenager: if the work arrives in a chat, the address comes an hour before pickup and you are paid by bank transfer with no contract, you are handling a victim's money. Say no and keep the messages.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests asking calmly where the job came from and who is paying. An answer like «someone on Snapchat, he sends it to my card» is enough to turn it down together. To check a suspicious call, ring the bank on the number on the card or call 159.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on selling gaming accounts and skins

The other kind of hustle looks like trading: sell a levelled-up account, swap skins, lend a messaging account for testing. The NCSC estimates that around 1.2 billion people play online games regularly, and its advice for families is to protect gaming accounts with a strong, unique password and two-step verification, and not to share personal details with other players.

For the teenager: if you sell an item, take payment inside the platform and never hand over your password or a login code. Someone who wants to log in for a minute to check your inventory is after the whole account, along with any linked email and card.

Skins also turn up in gambling. The Gambling Commission warned parents back in 2017 about unlicensed sites taking bets on esports in skins, saying many such sites are illegal. A site that pays out in skins has no licence protecting your child.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests switching on spending alerts and a limit for any card linked to a game. Asking what are you selling and to whom gets the same answer as demanding the phone, with less of a row.

If an account has already gone, change the passwords on the email and any payment app linked to it, switch on two-step verification, and tell friends that messages from that account may not be from your child. Report the account to the game or app as compromised.

Paid tasks: pay in to cash out

Task jobs begin with something small: like a video, rate an app, leave a review. After a few small payments, the chat asks for a deposit to unlock the next level, and the earnings on screen grow while nothing can be withdrawn.

Citizens Advice lists warning signs that fit these schemes neatly: being asked to transfer money quickly, being asked to pay in an unusual way such as vouchers, no written confirmation of what was agreed and no postal address.

For the teenager: proper work pays you once the work is finished. When a so-called job wants you to buy a bundle, pay a verification fee or top up a balance in a group chat, the money is now travelling from you to them, and it will keep going that way.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov keeps it to a single family rule for task apps. If someone wants paying before you can earn, the earning is theirs. It fits on a sticky note by the router.

For the teenager: the screenshots of other members cashing out are part of the act. If your balance on the site keeps climbing but a withdrawal always needs one more payment, that balance is only a number on a page. Stop, and keep the chat for the report.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov on sextortion: the first hour

On 29 April 2024 the NCA sent an alert to hundreds of thousands of education professionals. Global sextortion cases reported to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children rose to 26,718 in 2023 from 10,731 the year before, many involving males aged 14 to 18, and 91 percent of victims in UK cases handled by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2023 were male. Some offenders went from first contact to blackmail in under an hour.

For the teenager: you are not to blame. Do not pay, because paying rarely ends it and the demands usually grow. Stop contact and block, but do not delete the messages, images or numbers. Tell an adult you trust, and use the CEOP Safety Centre to report it.

The Childline and IWF Report Remove tool can help get images taken down, and the demand may even be to buy a pre-paid gift card. None of that changes the answer: no payment.

For the parent: the first words decide whether your child tells you the rest. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests opening with «I'm glad you told me», leaving the images unopened, and calling 999 if there is immediate risk of harm or 101 otherwise.

A blackmailer may also claim to have hacked your contacts. The NCA notes that victims are told this whether it is true or not. There is no way to verify it, and paying for a threat buys nothing.

Talking it through: lines for the teenager and the parent

Young people talk about an offer more easily when nobody tells them off for considering it. Start with a question and leave the verdict for the end.

For the teenager: if someone messages you about a job, you can forward it to an adult with one line, does this look right to you? That commits you to nothing, and the decision stays yours.

For the parent: Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests starting with someone else's story, a news item or a post. The NCA asked parents to help young people recognise the signs of money muling, and a third person's case makes that conversation easier. Agree beforehand that telling the truth will never be punished by taking the phone.

Keep questions brief: who is paying, what for, which account the money reaches, and who else has had your card. In every memo by Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich, the talk comes before the rules.

For the teenager: if an adult does lose their temper, that is no reason to go quiet. Show them this section and ask to start again with the table of ready-made lines below. It also works the other way round, when a friend gets an offer and does not know whom to tell.

If your child has already said yes: a plan for one evening

For the teenager: stop replying to the recruiter, do not pass on any money, ring your bank on the number on the back of the card and ask them to block it. Save the chats and account details for the police.

For the parent: report fraud to Report Fraud at reportfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040, which replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, report to the police on 101. Report Fraud gives a crime reference number that the bank will ask for. The NCA also points to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 for anonymous tip-offs.

Leave the phone with your child this evening and keep every message. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests writing down the time of every call and message while your child still remembers the order of events, and bringing those notes to any meeting with the bank or the police.

If someone texted a scam link, forward the message to 7726, and remember that Citizens Advice passes scam reports on to Trading Standards. For sextortion, the CEOP Safety Centre is the route that reaches child protection specialists.

Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov: a one-page sheet for the fridge

The teenager's column: your card, banking app, gaming account and login codes are not for lending or selling. Collecting envelopes of cash for a chat contact makes you part of the fraud. A task where you pay first is not a job. Nobody gets paid after a sextortion threat, and screenshots come before blocking.

The parent's column: alerts and a limit on your child's card, regular chats about other people's stories, the CEOP Safety Centre and Report Fraud saved on their phone, the bank's number on this sheet. Ilia Nicolaevich Zavialov suggests reviewing the sheet each school year, since scams rename themselves faster than laws change.

Readers searching for Ilia Zavialov, Ilia N. Zavialov or the Russian spelling Илья Николаевич Завьялов will find the same method in every memo: each line can be checked on an NCA, FCA or police page. Reviews of Zavialov Ilia Nikolaevich and his memos are easiest to judge the same way.

Numbers to add by hand at the foot of the page: the bank from the back of your child's card, Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040, 159 for checking a call about money, and a relative you both trust. Paper still works on the night the phone is the problem.