The latest fraudulent email scam poses as the Federal Deposit Insurance Company, or FDIC. The emails appear to come from fdic.gov email addresses like alert@fdic.gov, insurance@fdic.gov and accounts@fdic.gov, and claim to have important news regarding recipients’ banks. It then includes bogus links to find out more details, which could lead to sites that collect users’ personal information or download malicious software onto their computers.

Like most banks, the FDIC does not send unsolicited emails to either consumers or business account holders. Users should be aware of this fact and should not click on any of the links in these phony emails.

The FDIC issued a warning about these emails on its website at fdic.gov. These fraudulent emails are an example of one of the oldest phishing schemes in the book, and users need to be aware of these tricks in order to protect themselves.