YOUR COMPLIANCE MATTERS:         FCA emails alert; scam and genuine  

YOUR COMPLIANCE MATTERS:         FCA emails alert; scam and genuine

Relevance:                 All firms.

Action required:       Identify real emails from the FCA against scam ones.

We have received indication from several firms querying another suspicious looking email purporting to be from the FCA.

We have been advised that the email correspondence has the title ‘YOUR DUE DILIGENCE REQUEST IS NOW DUE’ and goes on to state ‘We require your reviews and answers the relevant questions and return no later than the 15 of November 2020’ before providing a link.

PLEASE BE AWARE THIS IS A SCAM.

You should notify all staff that this type of email is in circulation and remind them that they should NOT click on any links or reply to the scammer directly. This is especially important where staff may be working at home and so do not have the close support of or contact with other colleagues.

Reminder: If you are in any doubt over the legitimacy of any FCA communication you receive, you should speak to the FCA’s Contact Centre. The FCA has published information to help firms spot and avoid these scams; this can be found by using the link here.

And it may not be a coincidence that these emails come at the same time as the FCA is actually contacting firms by email, as indicated to clients in our notice on 29 October 2020 relating to the FCA’s Financial Resilience Surveys

This will be a genuine FCA email and is a repeat of the survey that was originally issued in June – August of this year. Not all firms will receive this survey, but for those that do completion of it is mandatory.

The FCA has published confirmation of the legitimacy of this survey; this can be found by using the link here.

Please check that the e-mail address is from FCA@fcanewsletters.org.uk or an fca.org.uk e-mail address when you receive the survey.

If you need to discuss any aspect of this matter with us, please make contact in the normal way.