FBI Issues Warning on Growing Financial Scam

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regularly issues public service announcements to keep people safe and informed of any looming dangers, physical, financial, or otherwise. This week, the FBI issued a new important warning.

In an alert issued this week, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center warned that cybercriminals are increasingly impersonating financial institutions in an attempt to steal money in what’s known as an Account Takeover Fraud Scheme.

The FBI says that it has received more than 5,100 complaints reporting this type of fraud, with losses exceeding $262 million.

How the Scam Works

According to the FBI, the scam involves a cyber criminal impersonating the victim's financial institution's staff or website in order to obtain access to the account. This typically happens either through social engineering or phishing techniques.

The social engineering techniques typically involve texts, calls, and emails.

"Social engineering methods include contacting account owners via fraudulent text messages, calls, or emails to trick the email recipient into providing their login credentials. In some instances, the cyber criminal states there are fraudulent transactions on the financial account and may provide a link to a phishing website that the account owner believes will report the fraud or prevent additional fraudulent transactions," the FBI's announcement warns.

"In some instances, cyber criminals impersonating financial institutions reported to the account owner that their information was used to make fraudulent purchases, including firearms. The cyber criminal convinces the account owner to provide information to a second cyber criminal impersonating law enforcement, who then convinces the account owner to provide account information," the alert continued.

The phishing method, meanwhile, uses fraudulent websites that look like the legitimate online financial institution or payroll website to trick the account owner into entering their login credentials, which then gives away their login credentials to the scammer.

"Once the impersonators have access and control of the accounts, the cyber criminals quickly wire funds to other criminal-controlled accounts, many of which are linked to cryptocurrency wallets; therefore, funds are disbursed quickly and are difficult to trace and recover. In some cases, including nearly all social engineering cases, the cyber criminals change the online account password, locking the owner out of their own financial account(s)," the FBI warns.

Keep Yourself Safe

The FBI also issued several tips for how to keep yourself safe from these scams.

• Be careful about the information you share online or on social media.
• Monitor your financial accounts on a regular basis.
• Always use unique, complex passwords.
• Use Bookmarks or Favorites for navigating to login websites.
• Stay vigilant against phishing attempts.

If you were the victim of a financial scam, the FBI urges you to act fast.

"Contact your financial institution as soon as fraud is recognized to request a recall or reversal as well as a Hold Harmless Letter or Letter of Indemnity. Requesting a recall and obtaining a Hold Harmless Letter/indemnification documents as quickly as possible may reduce or eliminate your financial losses," the FBI urges.