As if the SEC doesn’t have enough to deal with, it must also now contend with con artists using the names of actual SEC employees to attempt to gain confidential information and mislead potential victims. The SEC announced today that in some instances,

investors in the U.S. and abroad have been tricked into revealing private information, giving fraudsters access to their brokerage accounts, and even sending money and other assets to imposters. In other instances, unknown individuals have attempted to impersonate SEC examiners to gather confidential information from broker-dealers and investment advisers. Imposters have contacted firms by telephone, identified themselves as members of the SEC staff, and demanded immediate access to the firm’s records, sometimes claiming to be conducting an “emergency” examination.

The SEC emphasized in a press release today that the SEC “never makes or endorses investment offers or participates in money transfers. Nor does the SEC send e-mails asking for detailed personal information, or financial information such as PIN numbers.” The SEC also suggested that when receiving a call from someone claiming to be from the SEC, the recipient of the call should ask for the caller’s name, the SEC office in which they work, and their telephone number. The recipient can then verify the caller’s identity by calling the SEC’s personnel locator at 202-551-6000 and asking to speak directly to that SEC staff member.

It has been a few years, but this is not the first time that securities regulators have been impersonated. In 2004, the SEC brought a case against Peter J. Wilson for securities fraud. The SEC alleged that Wilson sought to manipulate the price of stocks he traded and illegally obtain material, non-public information from public companies by impersonating officials from the NASDAQ Stock Market and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX).  Specifically, the SEC claimed that from at least June 2003 through April 2004, Wilson carried out a scheme where after seeing an unusual upward spike in the share price or trading volume of a stock, Wilson would sell the securities short and then place a telephone call to the issuer. According to the SEC,

During these calls, Wilson used an alias and told a corporate officer of the issuer that he was an employee of NASDAQ or AMEX, depending on where the issuer’s stock was listed. Using that false authority, Wilson then asked the corporate officers if they knew of a reason for their companies’ unusually high share price or trading volume. Wilson was seeking-and in several of these telephone calls received-material, non-public information: that the company knew of no reason for the increased price or volume. In all but one case, Wilson instructed the company to issue a press release confirming that it knew of no reason for the increased price or volume. Two of the companies followed Wilson’s instructions and issued such releases. Wilson knew that the companies’ stock prices would drop as a result of these press releases.

In addition, in 2004 there were also reports that the FBI was investigating a male individual claiming to be an SEC examiner who had called six or seven hedge funds and asked questions about the funds’ business.