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IRS Warns of New W-2 Scam

Danger signThe IRS has sounded the alarm that scammers are going phishing for W-2 information and are using spoofed emails as bait. The scam uses emails to impersonate a company's chief executive officer in order to ask that human resources or payroll office employees send personal information on employees, which the scammers would then use for identity theft purposes. Targets will receive an email saying things such as: 

  • *Kindly send me the individual 2016 W-2 (PDF) and earnings summary of all W-2 of our company staff for a quick review.

  • *Can you send me the updated list of employees with full details (Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Home Address, Salary).

  • *I want you to send me the list of W-2 copy of employees wage and tax statement for 2016, I need them in PDF file type, you can send it as an attachment. Kindly prepare the lists and email them to me asap.

The scam coincides with the official start of the tax season, and is a variant on a similar fraud that began circulating through email boxes last March as well.Cybercriminals tricked payroll and human resource officials into disclosing employee names, Social Security numbers and income information. The thieves then attempted to file fraudulent tax returns for tax refunds.
 
The IRS urges company payroll officials to double-check any executive-level or unusual requests for lists of Forms W-2 or Social Security number.