Email Scams Impersonating The Financial Conduct Authority Are Running Rampant

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), a “conduct regulator for 58,000 financial services firms and financial markets in the UK,” is under impersonation. Fake emails are being sent in the company’s name to thousands of investors and enthusiasts within the cryptocurrency space, trying to take advantage of the recent Bitcoin blowup.

Taking Advantage of A Good Situation

“Bitcoin is still a long way off its peak price of $20,000, which it reached in 2017, but some cryptocurrency experts believe it could hit an even higher value by 2020,” reads the scam email, as Finance Magnates reports. It is leading recipients to believe that they can “earn on crypto assets” assuming they participate in buying cryptocurrency.

Fortunately, the Financial Conduct Authority has put out a statement regarding this. In that announcement, the group also revealed a couple more fake emails being sent out under subject lines like “Blacklisted FX Firms” and “Overdue Balance.” According to the publication, the scammers utilize a unique software that takes potential victims to a fake website that resembles the FCA’s.

However, those that click the link have their information stolen. From there, it’s used for fraud and other purposes. It is recommended by the company that users simply delete the emails rather than touch them:

“Look for signs that the email, letter or phone call may not be from us, such as it listing a mobile or overseas contact phone number, an email address from a hotmail or gmail account, or a foreign PO Box number.”

On top of this news, the FCA noted that more and more clients are contacting the company about online trading regarding cryptocurrencies. However, a decent amount of these numbers are affiliated with the digital asset scams going around.

Even so, the interest in cryptocurrency-related queries is a great sign that the market is on the up regardless of the scams and other fake news surrounding it.