The Qubec Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is warning investors about phishing scams purporting to come from regulators, namely either the AMF or regulators in France.
The AMF says that in a recent case, a person calling himself Daniel Touffu contacted several individuals online, purportedly to help them recover money invested, or lost, through unauthorized online trading platforms. It says they were asked to fill out a form that included the logo of Quebec’s AMF; and, to send the form, along with various banking documents, to an address not associated with the AMF.
The regulator reports that it has contacted the people targeted by this approach, and says that it is working with the French regulators to put a stop to this sort of activity. Regulators in France recently issued a warning about this type of activity, it notes.
The AMF urges consumers that receive this type of solicitation to not respond to it, and to report the incident. “To avoid becoming a victim of this type of activity, which is often associated with identity theft, consumers should not respond to requests for personal information without first checking whether the request does in fact originate from the alleged institution,” it says.