MFSA warns of scam emails impersonating authority

The Malta Financial Services Authority on Tuesday warned about scammers circulating emails “impersonating” the authority.

In a statement, the MFSA said that emails from support@mfsa-compliance.com were being sent out requesting payment of a capital gains tax of the profits from investments conducted or processed through financial intermediaries in order to release the funds.

The emails include “threats” that the funds would be blocked or returned to the originating institution, the authority said.

"Although the following email address support@mfsa-compliance.com purports to originate from the Authority, the MFSA hereby confirms that this is not the case."

The MFSA pointed out that official correspondence is issued on the authority’s official letterhead and sent via registered mail and that the authority’s email addresses end with its domain name @mfsa.mt.

“The MFSA never requests urgent monetary deposit,” the authority added.

It urged for caution over unsolicited emails “even if they appear to come from a legitimate or familiar source”.

It listed a number of indicators that might show the document or email may not be genuine:

• Unexpected or abnormal communication from the MFSA or other local authorities;
• Use of urgent, threatening, or demanding language requesting payments, personal or financial information, or urging you to click on suspicious links;
• Poor-quality logos or documents;
• Spelling or grammatical errors;
• Reference to unlicensed financial service providers;
• Use of email addresses not ending with the MFSA’s official domain name (@mfsa.mt) or those of other recognised authorities; and
• Communications through instant messaging applications or private numbers claiming to originate from the MFSA.