Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reminds financial institutions to use its resources to detect relationship investment scams

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a reminder to financial institutions to remain vigilant to potential relationship investment scams in support of the multiagency #DatingorDefrauding campaign led by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Office of Customer Education and Outreach. FinCEN emphasised that Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filings and effective Bank Secrecy Act compliance support law enforcement efforts to detect, investigate, and prosecute cases involving these scams. The release points institutions to existing FinCEN materials covering scam typologies, tools and tactics, and related filing instructions and key terms, including an alert on the virtual currency investment scam commonly referred to as “pig butchering,” an advisory on elder financial exploitation, an alert on deepfake-media fraud targeting financial institutions, an alert on schemes abusing FinCEN’s name and authorities, and a notice on the use of convertible virtual currency kiosks for scam payments. It also highlights FinCEN trend analysis products on elder financial exploitation and mail theft-related check fraud.