Malta’s Central Bank warns of scam impersonating the bank

The Central Bank of Malta (CBM) on Wednesday issued a warning about fraudulent e-mails being sent out to the public by scammers pretending to be the bank.

In a statement, the CBM highlighted how the domain centralbakofmalta.org – without the ‘n’ in bank – is being used to impersonate the institution.

"The domain has been reported to the various authorities but the Central Bank of Malta would like to alert the public to its existence.

"Anyone receiving emails should carefully check the email address from which it originated and should contact the Bank on phishing@centralbankmalta.org if in any doubt. Kindly note that the Bank does not send unsolicited emails," it said. 

2021 can be seen as the year of online scams locally, with banks, telecoms companies and the general public being targeted. The police have had to repeatedly warn the public of a variety of scams targeting people, such as one where the scammer claims to be from the Malta Police Force and that money laundering breaches have been flagged.

A more common scam has been through fraudulent DHL or MaltaPost messages asking the receiver to send small payments in order to release a package.