2011 Security Alerts

E-mail Claiming to Be From the FDIC - February 8, 2012 and December 2011

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 said to notify recipients of "recent changes in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation insurance coverage." They state, "During the period from December 31, 2010 to December 31, 2012 all the money in a "noninterest-bearing transaction account" are fully insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Please note, that this is a temporary measure besides the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's general rules.

The term "noninterest-bearing transaction account" includes a usual checking account or demand deposit account on which no interest is paid by the insured depository institution."

A hyper link is provided (the Web addresses (URL) vary widely) to a Web site that supposedly provides "more details of this temporary FDIC coverage for transaction accounts."

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.

Fraudulent "FDIC Notification" E-Mails with Attachment-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 bank customers, 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.

Email Claiming to be from the FDIC - July 19, 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-mails appears to be sent from various "@fdic.gov" e-mail addresses, such as "protection@fdic.gov," admin@administration.fdic.gov," or service@admin.fdic.gov."

They have various subject lines such as "Update for your banking account," "ACH and Wire transfers disabled," and "Banking security update."

The fraudulent messages state:

"Dear clients,

Your account ACH and Wire transactions have been temporarily suspended for your Security, due to the expiration of your security version. To download and install the newest Updates, follow this link. As soon as it is set up, your transaction abilities will be fully restored. Best regards, Online security department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation."

These e-mails and links 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 access the link provided within the body of the e-mails and should NOT install any related files or software updates.

Fraudulent Emails Claiming to be from NACHA (Phishing Alert Update August 2011)

To reiterate previous notices sent since February 2011, NACHA has been the victim of sustained and evolving phishing attacks in which consumers and businesses are receiving e-mails that appear to come from NACHA. These emails vary in content and appear to be transmitted from email addresses associated with the NACHA domain (@nacha.org). Some bear the name of fictitious NACHA employees and/or departments.

NACHA itself does not process nor touch the ACH transactions that flow to and from organizations and financial institutions. NACHA does not send communications to persons or organizations about individual ACH transactions that they originate or receive.

Be aware that phishing emails frequently have attachments and/or links to Web pages that host malicious code and software. Do not open attachments or follow Web links in unsolicited emails from unknown parties or from parties with whom you do not normally communicate, or that appear to be known but are suspicious or otherwise unusual.

If malicious code is detected or suspected on a computer, consult with a computer security or anti-virus specialist to remove malicious code or re-install a clean image of the computer system.

Always use anti-virus software and ensure that the virus signatures are automatically updated.

Ensure that the computer operating systems and common software application security patches are installed and current.

Additional information and guidance on phishing is available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Email Claiming to be from the FDIC - March 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-mails appears to be sent from various "accounts@fdic.gov" and includes a subject line that states: "About your business account."

The e-mail is addressed to "Business Customers" and states "We have important information about insurance coverage of your business accounts." It then asks recipients to "Please click here to view details" and includes a hyper link to a Web site.

The e-mail says that it is from "Alyssa Williams, FDIC Insurance."

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.

Email Claiming to be from the FDIC - February 15, 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 subject line of the e-mail states: "Important information for depositors of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation." The e-mail informs recipients that "this message was sent to you as you had indicated this e-mail address as a contact, by opening an account in your bank department."

The e-mail then states, "In order to inform you about the news concerning current business activity of the Company on a timely basis, please, look through the last important changes in current regulations of endowment insurance procedure. Please, refer to more detailed information in the attached document." The e-mail says that it is from "Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Investor Relations Department."

Attached to the e-mail is Zip file named "FDIC_Document.ZIP"

This e-mail and its attachment 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 open the attachment provided.

The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers.