The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued an alert to warn brokerage firms of a phishing campaign that is currently ongoing.
A not-for-profit organization, FINRA is U.S. government-authorized and overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It regulates more than 624,000 brokerage firms and trains and registers broker-dealer personnel.
“FINRA warns member firms of an ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails purporting to be from ‘FINRA Membership’ and using the email address ‘supports(at)finra-online.com’,” FINRA says in its alert.
The message, which claims to detail a non-compliance issue that requires immediate attention, attempts to trick the intended victim into clicking on a link or opening a document.
“Please find the following attached report from FINRA on regulatory non-compliance for which your immediate response is required. As part of a disclosure review process, we require this background report be completed. Review the enclosed document in respect to our compliance policy,” a version of the message, which FINRA has shared publicly, reads.
Individuals who received such emails and who might have clicked on a link or image in the email should immediately report the incident to the security team within their organization, FINRA recommends.
The organization also explains that it has no connection to the ‘finra-online.com’ website, urging any firm that receives emails originating from this domain name to immediately delete the messages.
Furthermore, targeted firms are reminded to check any suspicious emails they might receive and be wary of opening unsolicited attachments or clicking on any embedded link.
FINRA also notes that it has already contacted the Internet domain registrar to demand they suspend their services for ‘finra-online.com’.
This is the second warning of this kind that FINRA issues, after a December 2020 alert that revealed details of a phishing attack abusing a lookalike domain to target brokerage firms.
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