FinCEN advisory on economic impact payments

by David Park, NAFCU Compliance Blog

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided for an additional round of economic impact payments, and the Department of the Treasury has been sending these payments for a little over a week. As more and more payments are received and deposited into member accounts, credit unions may be concerned about the threat of fraud or other financial crimes targeting these payments. Luckily, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued an Advisory on Financial Crimes Targeting COVID-19 Economic Impact Payments last month.

Like the previous COVID-19-related advisories issued by FinCEN, the recent advisory described examples of the types of fraud and crime that had been observed as well as certain red flags that might alert a credit union about illegal or suspicious activity related to economic impact payments.

FinCEN noted that examples of economic impact payments fraud and theft included, among other things:

  • Using fraudulent checks to trick individuals into providing personal or banking information that provides the fraudsters with unauthorized access to the victims’ accounts;

 

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