The Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) has warned that fraudsters may be impersonating its staff in a bid to trick consumers.

The financial watchdog said it had become aware that some individuals or entities could be “impersonating MFSA officials and are circulating documents, private messages and e-mails claiming to originate from the MFSA”.

The authority encouraged the public to “remain vigilant” and treat unsolicited e-mails with caution “even if they appear to come from a familiar source”.

Providing a list of signs that could indicate a document or message might not be genuine, it warned fraudsters could resort to “urgent, threatening or demanding language” while requesting payments or personal information.

Other warning signs included low-quality logos and images, spelling or grammatical mistakes or references to unlicensed financial service providers, stressing that a list of licensed entities was available at the authority’s website.

Meanwhile, “unexpected or abnormal” communications from the authority, e-mails sent from addresses with different domains to “@mfsa.mt’” and texts from private numbers were all flagged by the watchdog.

It reminded the public not to pay money to any entity without first checking it was licensed by the MFSA.

While concerning, this is not the first time fraudsters have impersonated the financial regulator; the watchdog last flagged the issue back in September.

Scammers purportedly claiming to be from a financial institution appear to be a growing problem; in an interview last year, Revolut’s head of growth told Times of Malta that tactics used by scammers were “evolving very quickly” and were a “top concern” for the company.

Shortly before that interview, scammers pretending to be from Revolut called Times of Malta on WhatsApp in a bid to extract personal information.

Consumers lost some €12.5 million to scams and online fraud in 2023, almost 50% higher than the €8.5 million they lost in 2022, according to figures provided by the police last year.