The Rise of Fake Banks in USA & UK

Analysis by CTM360
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Illustration depicting fake banking websites impersonating legitimate US and UK financial institutions, showcasing fraudulent onboarding, fake KYC processes, and financial scams.

Overview

CTM360 identified an ongoing fraud campaign involving fake banking websites targeting users in the United States and the United Kingdom. These entities impersonate legitimate financial institutions and regulators while operating entirely online, without authorization or physical presence.

The campaign relies on professionally designed, fully functional websites offering fraudulent financial services such as loans, mortgages, grants, and credit cards. To increase visibility and credibility, the fake banks abuse search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, allowing them to appear in legitimate search results. CTM360 analysis shows the infrastructure behind these fake banks is highly scalable, using reused templates, branding elements, and hosting resources across thousands of domains.

Victim engagement is driven through fake onboarding, KYC processes, and social engineering, followed by advance-fee monetization—primarily through cryptocurrency.

Read the full report and explore CTM360’s latest insights and threat intelligence