Fake FINRA Survey Is a Phishing Scam, Regulator Warns BDs

The email scam is the latest of several attempts to illicitly gather data by impersonating FINRA or registered reps. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is warning member firms to avoid a phishing email that is requesting broker-dealers to fill out a fraudulent FINRA study.

In a notice posted on its website Tuesday, FINRA said the “widespread, ongoing phishing campaign … involves fraudulent emails purporting to be from FINRA asking member firms to complete a survey.”

The email was sent from the domain “@regulation-finra.org” and was preceded by “info” followed by a number, e.g., info5@regulation-finra.org, FINRA said.

The domain of “regulation-finra.org” is not connected to FINRA, and advisory firms “should delete all emails originating from this domain name,” the regulator cautioned.

FINRA recommended that anybody who clicked on any link or image in the email “immediately notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident.”

FINRA also requested that the internet domain registrar suspend services for “regulation-finra.org.”

The BD regulator also reminded firms to make sure they “verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email prior to responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links.” SOURCE