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The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority warned financial experts Monday of phishing emails that purport to be from the self-regulator.

In Regulatory Notice 20-12, FINRA states that the scam is "a widespread, ongoing phishing campaign that involves fraudulent emails" that claim to be from FINRA officers, including Bill Wollman and Josh Drobnyk.

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The emails have a source domain name "@broker-finra.org" and request immediate attention to an attachment relating to a financial firm.

The domain of broker-finra.org is not connected to FINRA and firms should delete all emails originating from this domain name, FINRA states. Also, FINRA has requested that the internet domain registrar suspend services for broker-finra.org.

"In at least in some cases, the emails do not actually include the attachment, in which case they may be attempting to gain the recipient's trust so that a follow-up email can be sent with an infected attachment or link, or a request for confidential firm information," FINRA explains. "In other cases, what appears to be an attached PDF file may direct the user to a website which prompts the user to enter their Microsoft Office or SharePoint password."

FINRA urged anyone who entered their password to change it immediately and notify the appropriate individuals in their firm of the incident.

Firms should verify the legitimacy of any suspicious email prior to responding to it, opening any attachments or clicking on any embedded links, FINRA states.

For more information, firms should review the resources provided on FINRA's Cybersecurity Topic Page, including the Phishing section of its Report on Cybersecurity Practices – 2018.

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Melanie Waddell

Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.