The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued a warning about scams in which its own name is being used for fraudulent purposes.

The scams are aimed at those wishing to make international transfers of funds who are allegedly asked by the FATF to pay fees for fictitious services, for example relating to verification of the origin of the funds. If the customer fails to pay the fees, the funds are blocked.

Veneer of credibility

These scams may appear to use letterheads with the FATF logo, or contain the signatures of actual or fictitious senior FATF officials, according to a statement issued by the global financial watchdog.

It says that fraudulent documents or messages may sometimes include legitimate website addresses to give a veneer of credibility to the scam.

Abuse of FATF logo

In some instances, the FATF says it has been made aware of fraudsters apparently using technology to make sender email or caller ID appear identical to the FATF’s official email or telephone number.

The FATF has also been informed that fraudsters have created Whatsapp profiles, complete with FATF logo, to contact their victims.

Don’t be fooled

The task force is warning people to be vigilant and not to be fooled by official looking messages, FATF or other logos and signatures of actual or fictitious FATF officials.

The FATF says it does not vet financial transactions, request fees or have the capacity to block any account it adds.

The FATF statement, Misuse of FATF’s name by fraudulent services requesting fees for the verification of the origin of funds, can be found here.

Categories: Trade Based Financial crimes News