Cybercriminals are using a recently registered lookalike domain in a phishing campaign targeting United States organizations, FINRA (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) warns.
A government-authorized not-for-profit organization, FINRA regulates over 624,000 brokerage firms in the United States.
Overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), FINRA enforces compliance with its own-issued rules, registers and trains broker-dealer personnel, and offers regulatory services for equities and options markets, among others.
In a recently issued notice, the organization warned brokerage firms of a phishing campaign leveraging the fraudulent domain invest-finra[.]org, which has no connection with FINRA.
“FINRA recommends that anyone who clicked on any link or image in the email immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident. […] firms should delete all emails originating from this domain name,” the organization says.
invest-finra[.]org was registered on November 5 with French registrar Gandi, and FINRA has already contacted the Internet domain registrar to suspend services for the fake domain.
“FINRA reminds firms to verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email prior to responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links,” FINRA underlines.
This is not the first time cybercriminals have leveraged FINRA lookalike domains in phishing campaigns. The tactic is widely employed by scammers, including those launching business email compromise (BEC) attacks.
Related: BEC Scammers Exploit Flaw to Spoof Domains of Rackspace Customers
Related: The Evolution of Phishing: Welcome “Vishing”
Related: Understand More About Phishing Techniques to Reduce Your Digital Risk