MANAMA: Cybercriminals are carrying out phishing attacks and attempting fraud in the name of Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI), the Bahrain-based standard-setting body has warned.
Advising participants in the Islamic financial sector and members of the public to stay vigilant, AAOIFI said yesterday it has become aware of certain malignant scam and phishing attacks seemingly initiated using its name and a similar domain name.
It alerted ‘all concerned’ to exercise great caution when responding to emails and other electronic communications from individuals falsely presenting themselves as AAOIFI employees, affiliates, agents or representatives.
The organisation said using false pretenses, the fraudsters might try to gain access to their victims’ personal information by claiming that they are acting on AAOIFI’s behalf and may claim certain financial or non-financial benefits, or may share certain files or links which may be aimed towards information security breaches.
“Such offers or claims will probably be in the form of an email sent from a fake email address such as (@aaoifl.com) which may seem similar to our domain (@aaoifi.com) and do not come from an official AAOIFI email address,” it said.
The perpetrators may misspell an official AAOIFI email address and use a slightly modified version of an official AAOIFI email address.
As of end-2020, AAOIFI standards are fully or partially adopted in 40 regulatory jurisdictions globally.
The organisation further warned that it does not provide any recruitment services and hence would never make a fraudulent employment or work offer or any other similar claim.
Neither will AAOIFI ask for money in exchange for employment opportunities or other similar services and any such offer in exchange for fees is deceitful and part of a fraud, it said.
The disclaimer from the organisation also said it would not be liable or responsible for any claims, losses, damages, expenses or other inconvenience resulting from such fraud.
“Potential criminal and civil liabilities may arise from such actions, and we intend to co-operate with competent law enforcement agencies and to request them to take appropriate action whenever such phenomena occur.”
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