Consumer Alerts

FDIC Consumer Education 

February 15, 2012 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of fraudulent e-mails that have the appearance of being sent from the FDIC. While the e-mails exhibit variations in the “From” and “Subject” lines, the messages are similar.The fraudulent e-mails are meant to notify recipients that “Your ACH and Wire transaction abilities have been temporarily withhold for your security, because your security version expired.”  

They then instruct recipients to “Please download and install the updated installations” by clicking on a hyper-link provided (Note:  the Web site addresses (URL) vary widely). Finally, most of the e-mails then state, “As soon as you have installed it, your account transactions will be completely reinstated.”

 This e-mail and link are fraudulent.  Recipients should consider the intent of this e-mail as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers.  Recipients should not click on the link provided.

 The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers or business account holders.

January 27, 2012

PHISHING SCAM — An email phishing scam was revealed this week which could affect clients of several financial institutions.

If you receive the email listed below DO NOT open it.  If you have opened it, DO NOT click on the link.

The phishing attack is contained in a fraudulent email identical or similar to the one that follows:

—–Original Message—–

From: eNFACT Notifications [

To: Recipients

Subject: eNFACT Case #29018

To protect your account, we monitor your ATM and debit card transactions for potentially fraudulent activity which may include a sudden change in locale (such as when a U.S.- issued card is used unexpectedly overseas), a sudden string of costly purchases, or any pattern associated with new fraud trends around the world.

An eNFACT Case was generated for the cardholder below: Transaction 1 Information:

A charge on 10/23/2011 in the amount of $438.09 in ITALY Transaction Score: 981

mailto:noreply@enfactnotifications.com] Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2012 11:34 AM

Transaction 2 Information:

A charge on 10/23/2011 in the amount of $513.14 in ITALY Transaction Score: 918

Transaction 3 Information:

A charge on 10/22/2011 in the amount of $0.02 at O RANCH Transaction Score: 37

The eNFACT Case is generated when a suspect transaction is detected. If this transaction was not initiated by you as the credit card holder please follow the steps as shown at

Please be sure to complete the Case Resolution Notification (CRN) Form at (

at 800-262-2024.

http://www.efactnotify.com/) . If you have any questions, or would like additional information pertaining to this eNFACT Case, please contact the Card Processing Center: http://www.efactnotify.com/

The latest consumer news and information can also be found on the FDIC’s website. 

  

E-mails Claiming to Be From the FDIC  

October 11, 2011

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of a fraudulent e-mail that has the appearance of being sent from the FDIC.

The e-mail appears to be sent from a “regulations@fdic.gov” e-mail address and has a subject line that reads: “2011 updated FDIC regulations.”

The e-mail starts out by saying “New Regulation approved for the FDI act expected to be implemented untill december 2011.” (note:  Typographical errors are included).  The e-mail attempts to trick recipients into clicking on a link directing recipients to a fraudulent Web site.

This e-mail and link are fraudulent.  Recipients should consider the intent of this e-mail as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers. Recipients should not click on the link provided.

The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers or business account holders.

 

 

 

September 15, 2011 (Directed to Business Owners)  

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of a fraudulent e-mail that has the appearance of being sent from the FDIC. 

The e-mails appear to be sent from various “@fdic.gov” e-mail addresses, such as “insurance@fdic.gov,” “subscriptions@fdic.gov,” “alert@fdic.gov,” or accounts@fdic.gov. 

The e-mails have subject lines, such as: “FDIC: Your business account;” “FDIC: About your business account;” “Insurance coverage of your business account;” or something similar. 

The e-mails are addressed to “Dear Business Owner,” and state, “We have important news regarding your bank.”  They then ask recipients to “Please click here to find details.”  They conclude with, “This includes information on the acquiring bank (if applicable), how your accounts and loans are affected, and how vendors can file claims against the receivership.” 

This e-mail and link are fraudulent.  Recipients should consider the intent of this e-mail as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers.  Recipients should not click on the link provided. 

 The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers or business account holders. 

   

   

September 1, 2011  

 The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of fraudulent e-mails that appear to be from the FDIC and contain an infected attachment. 

The fraudulent e-mails have addresses such as “no.reply@fdic.gov” or “notify84zma@fdic.gov” on the “From” line. The message appears, with spelling and grammatical errors, as follows: 

Subject line: “FDIC notification” 

Message body: 

“Dear customer,
Your account ACH and WIRE transaction have been temporarily suspended for security reasons due to the expiration of your security version. To download and install the newest installations read the document(pdf) attached below.

 

As soon as it is setup, you transaction abilities will be fully restored. 
Best Regards, Online Security departament, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.” 
 
 

 

The e-mails contain an attachment “FDIC_document.zip” that will likely release malicious software if opened. These e-mails and attachments are fraudulent and were not sent by the FDIC. Recipients should consider these e-mails an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers. Recipients should NOT open the attachment. 

Financial institutions and consumers should be aware that these fraudulent e-mails may be modified over time with other subject lines, sender names, and narratives. The FDIC does not directly contact consumers, nor does the FDIC request bank customers to install software upgrades. 

Information about counterfeit items, cyber-fraud incidents, and other fraudulent activity may be forwarded to the FDIC’s Cyber-Fraud and Financial Crimes Section, 3501 North Fairfax Drive, CH-11034, Arlington, Virginia 22226, or transmitted electronically to alert@fdic.gov. Questions related to federal deposit insurance or consumer issues should be submitted to the FDIC using an online form that can be accessed at http://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail/index.asp. 

For your reference, FDIC Special Alerts may be accessed from the FDIC’s website at www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2011/index.html. To learn how to automatically receive FDIC Special Alerts through e-mail, please visit www.fdic.gov/about/subscriptions/index.html. 

   

August 30, 2011 

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has received numerous reports of fraudulent emails that have the appearance of being from the FDIC. The e-mails appear to be sent from a “no.reply@fdic.gov” e-mail address.The e-mails have a subject line that read: “FDIC Notification.”The fraudulent emails are addressed to “Dear customer” and state “Your account ACH and Wire transactions have been temporarily suspended for security reasons due to the expiration of your security version. To download and install the newest installations read the document(pdf) attached below. As soon as it is set up, your transaction abilities will be fully restored.” The message concludes with, “Best regards, Online security department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.” The e-mails include an attachment named “FDIC_document.zip.” The e-mails and attachments are fraudulent and were not sent by the FDIC. Recipients should consider the intent as an attempt to collect personal or confidential information, or to load malicious software onto end users’ computers. Recipients should NOT open the attachment.  Financial institutions and consumers should be aware that other subject lines and modifications to the e-mails may occur over time.  The FDIC does not directly contact consumers in this manner nor does the FDIC request personal financial information from consumers. 

  

To access the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE), to calculate the insurance coverage for all types of deposit accounts offered by an FDIC-insured bank, click here. 

 
NOTICE OF CHANGES IN TEMPORARY FDIC INSURANCE
COVERAGE FOR TRANSACTION ACCOUNTS
All funds in a “noninterest-bearing transaction account” are insured in full by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from December 31, 2010 through December 31, 2012. This temporary unlimited coverage is in addition to, and separate from, the coverage of at least $250,000 available to depositors under the FDIC’s general deposit insurance rules. The term “noninterest-bearing transaction account” includes a traditional checking account or demand deposit account on which the insured depository institution pays no interest. It also includes Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts (“IOLTAS”). It does not include other accounts, such as traditional checking or demand deposit accounts that may earn interest, NOW accounts, and money market deposit accounts. For more information about temporary FDIC insurance coverage of transaction accounts, click here.