SIPC Warms Investors of Web Scam Targeting Madoff Victims
March 9, 2010
The Securities Investor Protection Corporation said on Tuesday that it is alerting regulators about a look-alike website which is targeting victims of the Madoff scandal.
According to the SIPC, which maintains a special fund to protect customers of bankrupt brokerage firms, the so-called International Securities Investor Protection Corporation (I-SIPC.com) copies several aspects of the legitimate SIPC website, including its artwork and structural design. The fake site, which says its operator is an international branch of SIPC, is soliciting victims of the Madoff scandal to submit claims. The SIPC says that doing so could lead to identity theft.
The site, which was closed as of 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, gives victims a chance to apply for $1.3 billion in cash recovered from a Madoff “hideout” in Malaysia. The site also says that it has ties to the United Nations and the World Bank but according to the Associated Press it is really registered to an address in Lagos, Nigeria.
SIPC is warning investors not to submit any personal information to I-SIPC.com, which includes testimonial from an alleged Madoff victim who claims to have recovered funds through the website .The investor says he received a $500,000 SIPC wire transfer, which he used to pay off his house.
“We know from information provided to us by individuals that this bogus group is already attempting to obtain funds and confidential financial information from investors in the U.S.,” says SIPC President Stephen Harbeck. “We intend to use every available means to shut down this illicit operation.”
SIPC says that it is looking into trademark infringement issues and will have the operator of the bogus website prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
“Never underestimate the creativity and duplicity of con artists,” the Securities and Exchange Commission says in a statement issued on Tuesday. “They will do anything to separate you from your money and securities.”
Victims of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme were led to believe they still had $65 billion in their accounts when Madoff confessed to his crime in December 2008. So far, SIPC has received 12,047 claims of which only 1,936 have been allowed. That means that so far only $650 million has been approved for payment.
