The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has become aware of letters that appear to be sent from the FDIC to financial institutions in the United States and other countries. The letters instruct the financial institution to deposit an enclosed official or cashier's check into a customer's account. The letters include "DEPOSIT ACCLERATION" directly below the letterhead and display the forged signatures of "Sandra L. Thompson, Director" and "Christopher J. Spoth, Acting Director 2." The letters are fraudulent and were not sent by the FDIC.

To date, the fraudulent letters have included one or more counterfeit official or cashier's checks and state that the FDIC is authorizing the deposit of the instruments as a payment to a customer's deposit account. The letters provide an actual customer's name and account number.

Financial institutions should not deposit the checks enclosed with the fraudulent letters. The FDIC does NOT authorize payments or deposits to customers' accounts and does not play a role in transactions between an open financial institution and its customers. Financial institutions that receive one of the subject letters should recognize that an unauthorized party may have the deposit account information of one of its customers and should consider assisting the customer in closing any compromised accounts and opening new accounts, as necessary.

Information about counterfeit items, cyber-fraud incidents and other fraudulent activity may be forwarded to the FDIC's Cyber-Fraud and Financial Crimes Section, 550 17th Street, N.W., Room F- 4004, Washington, D.C. 20429, or transmitted electronically to alert@fdic.gov. Questions related to federal deposit insurance or consumer issues should be submitted to the FDIC using an online form that can be accessed at http://www2.fdic.gov/starsmail/index.asp.

For your reference, FDIC Special Alerts may be accessed from the FDIC's website at www.fdic.gov/news/news/SpecialAlert/2007/index.html. To learn how to automatically receive FDIC Special Alerts through e-mail, please visit www.fdic.gov/about/subscriptions/index.html.

Distribution: All FDIC-Insured Institutions

NOTE: Paper copies of FDIC Special Alerts may be obtained through the FDIC's Public Information Center (1-877-275-3342 or 703-562-2200).