Mule

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A MULE email account means different things.

It may refer to an address maintained by an individual for the sole purpose of signing up for online offers or registering with a websites which require an email address. MULE accounts are used in order to prevent the loss of privacy and to avoid spam.

Alternatively it could refer to an account used to commit fraud. In this scenario the email address is referred to by a spam campaign. The spam campaign will usually offer the chance to be an intermediary for transactions involving large sums of money, that just so happen to require someone in the intermediaries position, who is offered a share of the large transaction for their troubles.

Mule in Online-Gaming (MMORPG-typical)

In online-gaming term (usually on MMORPG), this is almost similar to email account, only this time it's the game user account (which may require a valid email account for registration confirmation per account, hence the nearly similar meaning between both). A Muler (a person/user who make 'mule' account and use it) may create several alternative game accounts beside its main account. Originally, mule account is used as 'backup' if main one is banned/lost for some reason, now it's also served as illegal account for botting (if many mules were involved, it's called 'multi-botting'). Many reasons why people use mules, some use it for tricking/fixing a problem in game that can't be done feasibly using only one game account, others may use it for levelling many chars using illegal multi-botting program, the latter is more prevalent since most of them may trade/sell the highly-levelled/attributed chars with bells-n-whistles to other players for profit/gain (in 'blackmarket' since it's illegal). The use of mules alone seem not illegal, however when coupled with (multi-)botting program use, it's turned into illegal action and may be permanently-banned from the online-game when caught up.

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