Keldai Accounts: When Helping a Friend Becomes a Criminal Offence

Picture this: Your friend contacts you. He says he has a side business but his bank account has a transaction limit issue. He just needs to use your account for a few weeks to receive some payments. He’ll transfer your cut once the money comes in. Easy. Fast. No paperwork. No questions asked.

Or maybe it’s not a friend. It’s a stranger on Facebook offering you RM300 to RM500 just to let someone use your account for “business transactions.” You don’t even have to do anything. Just share your account number, hand over your ATM card, and wait for the commission.

Sounds harmless, right?

It is not. And if you have already done it, you may already be in serious legal trouble, whether you knew it or not.

What Is a Keldai Account?

The term keldai literally means “donkey” in Malay. In the context of financial crime, a keldai account (or mule account) is a bank account used by a third party to receive, hold, or move money linked to illegal activities, most often scam proceeds.

The account holder is the mule. They carry the load for someone else, often without fully understanding what they are carrying, and they bear the consequences when it all comes crashing down.

Bank Negara Malaysia defines a mule account as any account used by others to collect or move funds connected to unlawful activities. The account does not need to belong to the scammer. In fact, that is the whole point! Scam syndicates prefer to use someone else’s account precisely because it creates distance between them and the crime. You become their shield.

How People Get Dragged Into This

1. The “Help a Friend” Request.

Someone you know, be it a friend, a distant relative, or an online acquaintance, asks a “favour” to use your account temporarily. You trust them. You say yes. The money that flows through your account is often stolen from scam victims, and when police traces it, they trace it to you.

2. The Easy Income Offer.

You come across a job post or social media ad offering RM300 to RM500 just for “receiving and transferring funds.” It sounds like a legitimate part-time gig. You hand over your ATM card and PIN. Your account is used to launder scam proceeds, and again, the trail leads back to you.

3. The Loan Trap.

You approach an illegal moneylender for quick cash. As a condition of the loan, they take your ATM card. You think they are just holding it as security. They are using it as a mule account. When enforcement acts, your account is flagged, frozen, and you are the one investigated.

The common thread in all three scenarios? The person thought they were doing something small. Something manageable. Something that did not really involve them.

The law disagrees.

What the Law Says – And It Has Gotten Much Stricter

Prior to October 2024, the primary weapon used against mule account holders was Section 424 of the Penal Code which is a general provision on fraudulent dealings with a maximum sentence of five years. It existed, but prosecuting under it for mule account conduct required some legal gymnastics.

That changed in October 2024, when the Penal Code (Amendment) Act 2024 came into force, introducing four dedicated sections that target mule account conduct with surgical precision:

• Section 424A targets anyone who possesses or controls another person’s bank account or payment instrument without lawful authority.

Fine: RM5,000 to RM50,000. Jail: six months to five years. Or both.

• Section 424B targets the mule directly which is the person who hands over control of their own account to someone else without lawful authority.

Fine: RM10,000 to RM100,000. Jail: one to seven years. Or both.

• Section 424C covers the actual unlawful transactions whether conducted using your own account or someone else’s.

Fine: RM10,000 to RM150,000. Jail: three to ten years. Or both.

At the same time, Section 116D of the Criminal Procedure Code now empowers police officers of sergeant rank and above to freeze your account and block all transactions, even without a court order, the moment your account is suspected to be linked to illegal activity which could be days or even months.

“But I Didn’t Know” – The Defence That Does Not Exist

This is the part that most people do not understand until it is too late.

Ignorance of the law is not a defence in Malaysia. The moment your account is used to receive or move criminal proceeds, regardless of whether you were the one scamming anyone, you are immediately exposed to liability.

The new provisions significantly lower what the prosecution needs to establish. The focus shifts to whether you permitted your account to be used by another person without lawful authority or purpose, and that is a considerably easier threshold to meet than proving you were in on the scam itself.

As of mid-2025, PDRM had already recorded over 51,197 keldai account cases for that year alone, with more than 10,635 cases brought to court.[1] These are not all hardened criminals. Many are ordinary people Sudents, young adults, those in financial difficulty. All of them made what they thought was a simple, harmless decision. Recover PDRM’s Semak Mule platform, which allows anyone to check whether a bank account number or phone number is linked to reported fraud cases, has flagged over 190,000 bank accounts as mule accounts. That database is accessed by banks, enforcement agencies, and increasingly, by the public before making any payment.

Beyond Jail – The Consequences You Are Not Thinking About

Even if a prosecution does not result in a conviction, the collateral consequences of being linked to a keldai account are severe and long-lasting:

• Your account is frozen – sometimes for the entire duration of investigations, which can stretch for months.
• You may be blacklisted by financial institutions, making it difficult to open a new account or obtain credit.
• Your name and account details may be submitted to CTOS and other credit reporting agencies.
• Your business dealings, employment applications, and even travel documents can be affected once a criminal record is attached to your name.

And if you are a sole proprietor or run a registered business, the exposure runs deeper. As a sole proprietor, there is no corporate veil between you and the business. If your business account is used as a mule account, whether by you or by someone you permitted, you personally are liable for every ringgit that flowed through it.

The Practical Bottom Line

No commission is worth a criminal record. No favour is worth seven years in prison and definitely no quick cash arrangement is worth having your account frozen.

If you have already allowed your account to be used and are now facing investigations, a bank freeze, or a police notice, do not wait. The earlier you get proper legal advice, the more options you have.

If you or someone you know is facing issues related to a mule account whether as an account holder under investigation, or as a scam victim trying to recover funds, our litigation team is available to advise you.

We handle commercial fraud matters, including notices of demand, civil claims, and criminal defence. Reach out to us for a consultation.

Disclaimer: This article is for general information purposes and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your situation, please consult a qualified legal practitioner.

[1] Reference: Jenayah Keldai Akaun Meningkat PDM Dedah

This article is written by

Harvin Kaur Malhi
Senior Associate, Low & Partners