Fraudulent e-mails claiming to be from the Federal Reserve--October 22, 2012

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is aware of a recent surge of fraudulent e-mails claiming to be from the Federal Reserve.  Unlike previously reported "spam" e-mails, these e-mails claim to be from the "Federal Reserve Bank Auto-Informer" or another Federal Reserve-affiliated entity.  Most of these e-mails reference that an alleged transfer or transaction has been successful and provides details (such as an "Item #," "Amount," name of an individual, "fee," date, or "Type of Service,") and a link, or multiple links, for information regarding said transfer or transaction.  Many of these e-mails also list a false address for a Federal Reserve Bank or office at the bottom of the message. Below is a sample of this type of e-mail:

 

While the sophistication of these types of e-mails may make them appear legitimate, they are not.  As with all "spam" e-mails purporting to be from the Federal Reserve, the OIG strongly advises recipients of these suspicious e-mails to not click on any links or attachments provided in the e-mails, as they may contain malicious code that could infect your computer or it may be an attempt by an illegitimate entity to obtain personal and/or financial information.  If you wish to report these or other scams fraudulently using the name of the Federal Reserve, please contact the OIG Hotline.

Fraudulent spam emails claiming to be from the Federal Reserve--November 18, 2011

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is aware of a recent surge of fraudulent emails claiming to be from the Federal Reserve. In many cases, these emails appear to use a "federalreserve.gov" email address to create the appearance of legitimacy. These emails often reference the rejection of a wire transfer initiated by the recipient and request the individual to click on a link to obtain additional information. Phrases such as "The Domestic Wire transaction, recently sent from your bank account, was not processed by the Federal Reserve Wire Network" and "The Outgoing Wire fund transfer, recently sent from your bank account, was cancelled by an intermediary or beneficiary bank" are typical of this scam. The OIG strongly advises recipients of these suspicious emails to not click on any links or attachments provided in the emails, as they may contain malicious code that could infect your computer or it may be an attempt by an illegitimate entity to obtain personal and/or financial information.

Some email addresses fraudulently used include

alert@federalreserve.gov
fedwire@federalreserve.gov
info@federalreserve.gov
information@federalreserve.gov

You may report these and other scams fraudulently using the name of the Federal Reserve by contacting the OIG Hotline.