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-mails state: “Account Insurance from FDIC” or “FDIC Insurance.” The e-mail tells recipients that their “account has been denied insurance from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation due to suspected violations of the Patriot Act.” The e-mail goes on to ask recipients to “verify through our IDVerify below,” stating that “.information will be checked against a federal government database for identity verification.” The e-mail says that it is from “Donald E. Powell, Chairman Emeritus FDIC; John D. Hawke, Jr., Comptroller of the Currency; and Michael E. Bartell, Chief Information Officer.”
This e-mail and associated Web site 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 and should not click on the link provided.
The FDIC does not issue unsolicited e-mails to consumers. Financial institutions and consumers should NOT follow the link in the fraudulent e-mail.