IMF warns of fake e-mails using its name

By Reuters

Published: July 15, 2006, 8:52 AM PDT

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The International Monetary Fund on Friday warned of a jump in the number of fraudulent e-mails and communications claiming to be from or affiliated with the Washington-based multilateral lender.

There has been an apparent spike in such messages recently involving people in the United States targeting recent immigrants and people in cities, an IMF official said.

The IMF said U.S. authorities have been informed.

The scams range from "phishing" attacks where the names of IMF officials are misused to deceive recipients into disclosing personal financial information to "spoofing" in which a fake IMF Web site was created with false contact details to mislead potential users, the fund said.

"The IMF does not send any unsolicited business communications to individuals," a fund statement said. "The IMF does not operate through other agents nor endorse the activities of any bank, financial institution, or other public or private agency."

Story Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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• Add to My News | Create an alert Security threats
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