Fake FINRA, SEC, or securities regulator investment fraud recovery phishing — fraudulent email impersonating FINRA, the SEC, CFTC, or another financial regulator claiming the recipient has been identified as an investment fraud victim eligible for a recovery award, settlement, or restitution — directing them to click a link to claim funds, verify their SSN, brokerage account details, or bank routing number to receive their compensation

Phishing emails impersonating FINRA, the SEC, CFTC, or another financial regulatory authority — claiming the recipient has been identified as an investment fraud victim and is eligible for a recovery award, settlement distribution, or restitution payment — then directing them to verify their SSN, brokerage account details, bank routing number, or investment account number to receive the compensation. Investment fraud recovery scams are a particularly predatory subcategory because they target people who have already been victimized. Key facts: (1) Investment fraud recovery scams are one of the fastest-growing advance-fee fraud categories — the FTC reported over $870M in investment fraud losses in 2023, and a significant fraction of those victims are then targeted by recovery scammers who obtain victim lists through data brokers, dark web forums, and even public court filings from class action settlements; (2) The SEC and FINRA do distribute real settlement funds — the SEC has a Fair Fund program that returns money to harmed investors, and the existence of this legitimate program makes fake "SEC settlement" notifications credible to people who know such programs exist; (3) Recovery scams use a double-victimization model: the upfront fee to "process" the claim is the initial theft, then bank account details collected during "verification" enable direct account fraud; victims often lose more to the recovery scammer than to the original fraud; (4) FINRA arbitration awards are genuine and publicly searchable at FINRA BrokerCheck — scammers reference real arbitration cases and known fraudulent brokers to appear credible to victims of those specific frauds; (5) Legitimate FINRA and SEC fund distributions never require SSN or bank details via email — all legitimate fund distributions are administered through court-supervised processes with paper documentation, never email link verification. Warning signs: unsolicited email about investment fraud recovery eligibility, SSN or bank routing requested to claim compensation, non-government domain (not finra.org, sec.gov, or cftc.gov).