For the past several years, thousands of businesses have been hit with phishing scams during tax season. Through these social engineering scams, hackers obtain employee Forms W-2 for filing fraudulent tax returns seeking...more
For several years now, we’ve been alerting employers about the dangers of phishing scams that attempt to obtain private and personal information from employers... Many of these scams rear their ugly head around tax season,...more
There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the knowledge that Ben Franklin’s famous adage will be co-opted. A twenty-first century version of it may be that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except...more
In a recent Public Service Announcement dated February 21, 2018 entitled “Increase in W-2 Phishing Campaigns,” the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) issued another alert about an increase in phishing campaigns since the...more
It is tax season once again, and with it comes an increased threat of phishing scams targeting human resources and payroll personnel. In 2016, the IRS alerted employers to a then-emerging email phishing scheme in which...more
The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”), along with state tax agencies and the tax industry, recently issued a warning to employers about increasingly prevalent “phishing” email scams targeting the W-2 tax form information of...more
Tax season is here, which means tax fraud season is here, too. This year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning tax practitioners about a new phishing scam targeted at them and reminding all employers about...more
With a new tax season approaching, companies should be vigilant in guarding against criminals attempting to obtain sensitive information through a variety of scams. Last month, the IRS issued an alert warning consumers of an...more
According to the IRS, the IRS saw the number of businesses, public schools, universities, tribal governments and nonprofits victimized by W-2 scams increase to 200 in 2017 from 50 in 2016. Those 200 victims translated into...more
As employers prepare to send employees their W-2s for last year by the end of the month, cybercriminals are preparing phishing emails under the guise of company executives requesting personal information on employees. The IRS...more
It’s the start of tax season, and many employers are sending W-2 forms to employees so they can get ready to file their tax returns. As was true over the past few years, this is not only the busy season for tax preparers,...more
Brushing aside apparent flaws in a proposed class definition, a federal court in Kentucky declined to dismiss class allegations against North Carolina-based pharmacy services provider Pharm-Save Inc. (Pharm-Save) stemming...more
Last February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. The scam, which targets businesses during tax season, was also “spreading to other sectors, including school...more
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a renewed warning for tax professionals and businesses to beware of a recent increase in email scams targeting employee Forms W-2. According to the IRS, the W-2 scam – called business...more
The IRS has recently warned employers of another scam targeting employee information. The IRS has learned that scammers are posing as internal executives and are requesting Forms W-2 and Social Security Numbers from payroll...more
As previously highlighted, in early February, the IRS issued a warning to all employers regarding the resurgence of a W-2 based cyber scam. Since the IRS warning, this type of scam has taken numerous victims. On February 15,...more
HR and payroll professionals nationwide have been, and will continue to be, targeted with e-mails apparently sent by a senior executive but actually sent by scammers who ask for a prompt reply with the 2016 W-2s for all of...more
W-2 phishing schemes continue to be a problem for companies in every industry. Last week, American Senior Communities based in Indiana announced that one of its employees was scammed through a phishing email and thereafter...more
Emails, lots and lots of emails, filling our inboxes. Even with the best security and filters, it seems that hackers are simply building better mousetraps. The bigger problem, however, is the trusting nature of individuals...more
We continue to see all industries hit with W2 phishing scams, including the health care industry. Citizens Memorial Hospital, located in Bolivar, Missouri, was hit with the scam when one of its employees believed that an...more
Tax season can be a trying time of the year for any employer, but even more so now. As HR Departments across the country are working hard to distribute W-2 forms to employees, cybercriminals are using increasingly...more
Every January 31, employers scramble to meet the deadline for mailing W-2 forms to their employees. This year, a new iteration of an old W-2 phishing scam surfaced immediately thereafter....more
Our Data Privacy and Security team is currently assisting multiple clients in responding to nearly identical fraudulent requests for IRS Form W-2 information. Significantly, these clients are in a number of industries and are...more
Tax-related identity theft is nothing new, but tax season 2016 took tax schemes to a new level. Last year, our cyber experts advised a large cluster of clients (public and private companies) over a period of only two...more
We always see a surge in W2 email phishing schemes this time of year, as it is tax time, and many individuals are filing their tax returns in order to get a quick refund. So are criminals and cyber-hackers. ...more