FINRA Warns of Ongoing Fake-Email Scam
Bad actors are sending phishing emails from addresses similar to FINRA's, the regulator says.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is warning broker-dealers of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails purporting to be from FINRA and using the domain name “@finra.eu” or “@finrarec.com.”
As FINRA notes in its alert, one email from “finrarec.com” states:
“I’m contacting you from Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra), case XXXXXX regarding the funds which we’ve received from Blockchain under your name as Blockchain System is automatically blocking going out transfers from illegal platforms due to suspicious activities. The form of the money is in Bitcoins and it’s frozen and under control of Finra…”
The domains of finra.eu and finrarec.com are not connected to FINRA, the broker-dealer self-regulator warns, “and member firms or their customers may receive similar phishing emails from other domain names in addition to those identified” in the alert.
FINRA has requested that internet domain registrars suspend services for finra.eu and finrarec.com.
Broker-dealers and their customers who receive the phishing emails should delete all emails originating from these domains, and verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email before responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links, FINRA states.
FINRA also recommends that firms and their customers “do not call phone numbers listed in suspicious emails or text messages, as threat actors use these as a method of establishing contact with a targeted victim to extract personal information or solicit a fraudulent payment (this tactic is known as callback phishing).”
Questions regarding the alert should be directed to FINRA’s Cyber and Analytics Unit (CAU) at cybertech@finra.org.
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