The Bermuda Monetary Authority has warned of a new phishing scheme that appears to target Bermuda-based financial services licence holders.

A statement from the BMA said several licensees had received e-mails that came from false BMA e-mail addresses or private e-mail accounts.

“The fraudulent e-mails misappropriate the Bermuda Monetary Authority's name by attempting to get the recipient to click and open a PDF that requests more information as soon as possible,” the BMA said.

“The authority wishes to advise that no one at the BMA would make this kind of request. Any similar e-mails should be treated as phishing attempts, and the recipients should avoid clicking on any links or opening PDFs within such e-mails.

“If you receive any suspicious e-mails that appear to be from the BMA, please contact the authority directly and refrain from opening attachments, clicking on links or responding to the sender of these messages.”

The statement added that the BMA has investigated the matter and confirmed that its systems and network had not been compromised.

“Protecting the privacy of the authority's data and information, including that sourced from our registrants, has always been the highest priority for the BMA.”

The BMA urged anyone who received such an e-mail to delete it and report it to both the BMA’s corporate affairs department and the Bermuda Police Service at https://portal.police.bm.