WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has issued an alert to raise awareness of fraud schemes abusing FinCEN’s name, insignia, and authorities for financial gain, the agency said.
These FinCEN-specific fraud schemes include scams that exploit beneficial ownership information reporting; misuse FinCEN’s Money Services Business Registration tool; or involve the impersonation of, or misrepresent affiliation with, FinCEN and its employees.
“We are very concerned about reports of scammers using FinCEN’s name to perpetrate fraud schemes against the public for financial gain,” said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki. “We urge the public to be vigilant in identifying and avoiding these schemes and to be extremely cautious when dealing with unsolicited correspondence. FinCEN and its employees will never threaten a member of the public by email, call, or text, or demand immediate payment for any reason.”
The alert provides guidance to the public on how to identify and avoid these scams and provides typologies and red flag indicators to help financial institutions detect, prevent, and report potential suspicious activity to FinCEN, the agency explained.