The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) warns the public to be cautious of fraudulent messages from entities impersonating the FSCA.
The FSCA has become aware of emails purporting to be from ‘FSCA COMMUNICATIONS’ misleading customers or offering them opportunities to receive financial services provider (FSP) licences. These emails have no connection to the FSCA and members of the public should be extremely vigilant.
The FSCA has seen some of these emails, which come from a fscacommunications@gmail.com email address. The individuals using this fraudulent ‘FSCA COMMUNICATIONS’ email address claim to have tried to contact customers on suspicion of operating pyramid schemes due to irregular activity they have observed on their bank accounts. The recipient is then threatened with legal action or freezing of bank accounts, unless a fine of R200 000.00 is paid and the licence application is received.
The FSCA will never send communication from a Gmail account, or any domain other than the FSCA domain. Any communication that is not sent from the FSCA domain must be regarded as not coming from the FSCA.
The FSCA encourages anyone who may have received similar type of correspondence to report it immediately to the Authority. Customers can check with the FSCA on either the toll free number (0800 110 443) or https://www.fsca.co.za/Pages/Contact-Us.aspx