Misuse of FATF's name for fraudulent or illegitimate purposes

It has been brought to our attention that the name of FATF is being used for fraudulent purposes: people wishing to make international transfers of funds are allegedly asked by the FATF to pay fees for fictitious services, for example relating to verification of the origin of the funds. If the customer fails to pay the fees, the funds are blocked. These frauds may appear to use letterhead with the FATF logo or contain the signatures of actual or fictitious senior FATF officials. Sometimes they may include legitime website addresses to give a veneer of credibility to the scam. In some instances, the FATF has been made aware of fraudsters using technology to make sender email or caller ID appear identical to the FATF’s official email or telephone number. We have also been informed that fraudsters have created WhatsApp profiles, complete with FATF logo, to contact their victims. 

More recently, we have seen fraudsters offer ‘FATF asset recovery services’ to help victims recover lost or stolen funds, against a fee. FATF has made it a priority to improve asset recovery, by helping countries deprive criminals of their illicit assets. However, the FATF does not have an investigative function, it does not get involved in individual cases and cannot seize or confiscate funds. 

Fraudsters go to great lengths to trick their victims. Do not be fooled by official looking messages, FATF or other logos and signatures of actual or fictitious FATF officials.

The FATF does not provide any of the services these messages describe, the FATF is an intergovernmental agency.

The FATF does not contact members of the public directly by email, telephone, WhatsApp or any other means about specific financial transactions.

The FATF does not vet financial transactions, request fees or have the capacity to block any account.

The headquarters of FATF are located in Paris, France. FATF also operates a Training Institute in Busan, Korea. The FATF does not maintain any other regional office or employees.

If you have received a communication from someone pretending to represent the FATF, we advise you to immediately terminate that contact. If you have already paid them money, please contact your local law enforcement without delay. In general, if you believe you have information on money laundering or other fraudulent activity, you should contact your local authorities, in particular the Police or Financial Intelligence Unit of your country. You may find some useful contacts in the countries section on this website. 

We are also aware of the misuse of the FATF name to produce fake publications or websites that have no connection with the FATF. To check that a publication is official, ensure you are reading it on www.fatf-gafi.org or on the relevant FATF-Style Regional Body’s website.