W-2 Phishing Scams: Don't Take The Bait

​In recent weeks, hundreds of businesses around the country have been hit by an email "phishing" scam that is both brilliant in its exploitation of workplace power dynamics and potentially devastating in its effects. This particular scam, which includes widely reported cases involving the Milwaukee Bucks and Snapchat, generally works as follows:

• An employee in the targeted company's HR department receives a "spoofed" email, which superficially appears to come from a high-ranking member of management;
• The spoofed email asks the employee to respond with electronic copies of the previous year's W-2 earnings statements (which will include employees' social security numbers, compensation information and home addresses) for all of the targeted company's employees; and