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The Securities and Exchange Commission warns investors to be wary of scammers impersonating government officials in phone calls and messages, citing recent efforts by scammers using government authority to rob ordinary Americans.
The warning refers to misleading emails, letters, phone calls and voice messages that appear to come from the market regulator. The messages claim that people have raised concerns about suspicious activity or unauthorized transactions in their checking or cryptocurrency accounts.
“SEC personnel do not make unsolicited communications—including phone calls, voicemail messages, or emails—asking for payments related to enforcement actions, offering to approve trades, or seeking detailed personal and financial information,” the SEC investor said. Alarm It was published on Friday. “Be skeptical if anyone contacts you claiming to be from the SEC and asking about your stock, account numbers, PIN numbers, passwords, or other information that could be used to access your financial accounts.”
The SEC said anyone who receives an unsolicited message or call from someone claiming to be with the SEC can call the agency’s personnel locator to determine if the person is indeed from the SEC. The SEC’s alert also encouraged people to email help@SEC.gov or call the agency to check communications.
The agency focused on preventing market manipulation isn’t the only one facing scammers claiming to be from the federal government. Earlier this month, FBI officials said they learned of a software misconfiguration that allowed a hacker to send fake emails from an “@ic.fbi.gov” email account.
“Although the illegal e-mail came from a server operated by the FBI, this server [Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal] and it was not part of the FBI’s corporate email service,” the Bureau said in a statement on Nov. 14, “No actor has been able to access or compromise any data or data. [personally identifiable information] On the FBI network.”
The scammers’ success in impersonating government officials stunned Congress. Georgia Republican Representative Jody Hice, who held a hearing on criminal hackers at a House Oversight Committee last week, questioned an FBI official how state and local government officials should trust FBI communications in the future if messages sent by hackers could compromise.
“I just want to make sure we’re protecting state and local officials. How do they know what’s coming from the FBI? [accurate] What if what we saw last week, this weekend, happens again?” ‘ asked Mr. Hice.
Bryan Vorndran, deputy director of the FBI’s cyber division, said the bureau specifically knew how the “isolated incident” occurred and believed it could prevent the same thing from happening again.
“This software application and associated hardware were immediately taken offline, so we think the incident is covered and we don’t think this will affect any communications from that email server,” Mr. Vorndran said.
Mr Hice said he didn’t think Mr Vordran hadn’t answered the question.
The fraudulent communications problem that potentially deceives Americans isn’t limited to victims, whether investors or state and local officials interacting with the FBI, but it could reach many more people, including travelers for the upcoming holiday season. Cybersecurity firm Abnormal said last week that it observed a “:phishing” email where the scammer targeted victims in hopes of renewing their subscription to the Transportation Security Administration’s Preflight program for accelerated security scanning.
“Even though the email is not sent from a .gov domain, the average consumer might not immediately dismiss it as a scam, especially because the domain has the term ‘immigration visa forms’,” wrote anomalous threat intelligence analyst Rachelle Chouinard. of the company blog. “The email instructed the user to renew their subscription on a website that looked half legitimate.”
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