The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is warning about an increase in phishing scams, which often start with an email, text or encrypted message that falsely claims to be from a financial institution, government or regulatory agency.
"Virtually any news item, positive or negative, can become a 'hook' for a new scam — whether a natural disaster or the launch of a new product or company," FINRA warns in a new alert.
Such scams, the regulator says, can also come in the form of "authentic email, text or encrypted message" from a well-known company or financial institution or a government agency.
The Internal Revenue Service "regularly warns of phishing schemes that use references to tax refunds, filing issues or investigations to lure recipients into opening a bogus email or clicking on an embedded link," FINRA states.
