U.S. regulators are warning international investors that advance-fee fraudsters are impersonating regulators as part of their scams.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority issued an updated investor alert warning international investors about a new twist in advance-free fraud involving low-priced US securities. Con artists have been misusing FINRA’s name and impersonating FINRA employees in email communications in an apparent attempt to lend a false air of legitimacy to their schemes.

The regulator said that it has received several complaints from investors in the UK that all follow a similar pattern, involving fraudsters that try to cover up brokerage firm identity theft by impersonating FINRA to verify that the firm is “properly licensed by FINRA to perform transfer or stock recovery functions” in the investor’s country. A copy of the firm’s FINRA BrokerCheck report is attached to the email. But the report has been altered to remove the legitimate firm’s phone number and the email is signed by a representative of “FINRA Shareholder Support.”

There is no “FINRA Shareholder Support,” it notes. And FINRA does not send copies of BrokerCheck reports as a follow up to a sales call by a securities firm.

“We are extremely concerned that investors may be taken in by this attempt to highjack FINRA’s identity to lend credence to a scam,” said John Gannon, FINRA’s senior vice president for investor education. “FINRA’s regulatory responsibilities do not include assisting investors in ‘contacting properly licensed brokers and transfer agents,’ as the fraudulent emails state.”