The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network today issued an advisory alerting banks to economic impact payment fraud. The advisory describes EIP fraud, associated red flags and how to report suspicious activity.
Authorities have detected a wide range of EIP-related fraud, according to the advisory, including fraudulent checks, theft of EIPs and phishing schemes using EIPs as a lure where fraudsters use emails, letters and phone calls about the payments to get personal information like account numbers and passwords.
FinCEN also issued a companion notice for filing suspicious activity reports related to COVID-19. The notice is part of a series released by FinCEN about COVID-19 related threats and includes key terms to use when filing SARs about pandemic related activity.
