FinCEN updates scam advisory to financial institutions

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has issued an update to the Advisory to Financial Institutions on Email Compromise Fraud Schemes, first published in 2016, in order to educate financial institutions about the risks associated with business email compromise schemes, or BEC, and to highlight the potential for financial institutions to share information about subjects and accounts affiliated with email compromise schemes.  FinCEN noted that BEC scams generated more than $300 million every month in 2018, and that the most common method involves the use of fraudulent vendor or client invoices.  FinCEN also said that the number of suspicious activity reports filed pursuant to the Bank Secrecy Act has doubled since 2016, and now totals about 1,100 per month.  In response to these SARs, FinCEN, working with counterpart Financial Intelligence Units in over 164 jurisdictions, has recovered more than $500 million.

FinCEN news release | FinCEN updated advisory | 

FinCEN advisory (2016) | Financial trend analysis |