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IRS Issues Warning About New Phishing Scheme

The IRS on March 3 issued an alert concerning a phishing email scheme that requests personal information concerning employees. The alert is especially intended for payroll and human resources professionals, but retirement plan administrators and service providers would do well to heed the alert as well.

In IR-2-16-34, the IRS warns that the emails the scheme sends purport to be from company executives. The IRS says that the scheme already has resulted in some professionals mistakenly emailing payroll data, including Forms W-2 that contain Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information to cybercriminals.

The IRS says that some of the details contained in the e-mails include the following:

  • Kindly send me the individual 2015 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) as at 2/2/2016.
  • I want you to send me the list of W-2 copy of employees wage and tax statement for 2015, I need them in PDF file type, you can send it as an attachment. Kindly prepare the lists and email them to me asap.
“This is a new twist on an old scheme using the cover of the tax season and W-2 filings to try tricking people into sharing personal data, said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in a press release. “If your CEO appears to be emailing you for a list of company employees, check it out before you respond. Everyone has a responsibility to remain diligent about confirming the identity of people requesting personal information about employees,” he added.