US SEC warns investors on Govt Impersonation Attacks

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has published a warning for US investors of scammers that are impersonating the SEC officials via emails, phone calls, letters and voicemails. The SEC;s office of Investor Education and Advocacy has released this warning against potential fraud and scams. The US SEC warns investors to keep their heads up and stay safe against such acts.

US SEC warns investors

Below is the statement made by the SEC authorities,

These phone calls and voicemail messages are in no way connected to the SEC.  If you receive a communication that appears to be from the SEC, do not provide any personal information unless you have verified that you are dealing with the SEC.  The SEC does not seek money from any person or entity as a penalty or disgorgement for alleged wrongdoing outside of its formal Enforcement process.

Investors are requested to be vigilant against such social engineering and impersonation attacks, and not to provide any personal data to such scammers. If you encounter any such act, the SEC has requested the victims to contact or file a compliant with SEC’s Office of Inspector General at www.sec.gove/oig or make a call at 833 SEC-OIG1 (732-6441).

The officials from SEC are requesting investors to be skeptical about the calls and mails, and states that SEC doesn’t ask for any money or penalty for the service. A similar alert was made by the FBI in July for fraudsters impersonating registered investors, brokers and investment advisers.

Finally, here is what the SEC officials said about the attack,

Beware of government impersonator schemes.  

Con artists have used the names of real SEC employees and email messages that falsely appear to be from the SEC to trick victims into sending the fraudsters money.  Impersonation of U.S. Government agencies and employees (as well as of legitimate financial services entities) is one common feature of advance fee solicitations and other fraudulent schemes.  Even where the fraudsters do not request that funds be sent directly to them, they may use personal information they obtain to steal an individual’s identity or misappropriate their financial assets.

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