FINRA warns of phishing campaign exploiting imposter domain names
The US regulator has requested that domain registrars suspend at least three fraudulent domains
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has warned of a new phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails using domain names pretending to be the financial regulator.
In an advisory, the regulator said that the fake emails used the false domains @finrar-reporting.org, @Finpro-finrar.org and @gateway2-finra.org. The domains were registered on 12 August 2021.
It said that these emails asked recipients to click a link to “view request” and provide information to “complete” that request, noting that “late submission may attract penalties.”
The regulator that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email should immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident.
“None of these domain names are connected to FINRA and firms should delete all emails originating from any of these domain names,” it said in the advisory.
FINRA also urged any companies receiving such messages to verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email before responding, opening any attachments, or clicking on any embedded links. It has requested that the relevant Internet domain registrars suspend services for all three domain names.
"For more information, firms should review the resources provided on FINRA’s Cyber Security Topic Page, including the Phishing section of our Report on Cybersecurity Practices - 2018," FINRA added.
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Free downloadEarlier in June, FINRA published another advisory warning of similar phishing campaign using the domain name “@gateway-finra.org.” Like the present campaign, this one also asked recipients to click a link to “view request” and provide information to “complete” that request, noting that “late submission may attract penalties.”
In March, the regulator issued an advisory about a phishing campaign using “@finra-online.com” as a fake domain name to catch victims unawares. It said at the time that this domain name was “not connected to FINRA and firms should delete all emails originating from this domain name”.
Finra isn’t the only regulator to be targeted by phishers recently, as the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) recently issued a warning about a fake website impersonating them and hosted in India.
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