On 5/18/20, FinCEN issued an advisory (FIN-2020-A002) on medical scams related to COVID-19. The 9-page advisory was issued to alert financial institutions to rising medical scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic while also providing descriptions of COVID-19-related medical scams, case studies, red flags, and information on reporting suspicious activity. FinCEN explains that this will be the first of several advisories they plan to issue concerning financial crimes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While this advisory contains a number of things, it is important to point out that FinCEN requests that financial institutions reference their advisory in SAR field 2 (Filing Institution Note to FinCEN) and the narrative by including the following key term: “COVID19 FIN2020-A002” and select SAR field 34(z) (Fraud-other).
The entire advisory can be found here.
In addition to the advisory, FinCEN released a companion notice that contains contains pertinent information regarding reporting COVID-19-related criminal and suspicious activity and reminds financial institutions of certain Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) obligations.
The four page companion notice can be found here.