FCA warns against Bank of America clone firm
The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a warning against a clone firm impersonating the Bank of America.
According to the UK regulator, the imposter firm is using a domain boa-eu.com.
The Bank of America, N.A. is the real, registered and authorized entity by the FCA with Firm Reference Number: 124642. The domain the real entity uses is bankofamerica.com.
The FCA warned:
This FCA authorised firm that fraudsters are claiming to work for has no association with the ‘clone firm’.
Clone firm is a term the British financial authority uses for a company that uses details form an FCA-authorised firm in order to convince people that they are the real company.
The UK watchdog warned that fraudsters use this tactic when contacting people out of the blue and may use the real firm’s name and reference number.
The FCA reminded that people can check if a firm is authorised in the Financial Services (FS) Register.
The regulator cautioned:
If you use an unauthorised firm, you won’t have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) so you’re unlikely to get your money back if things go wrong.
