On March 24, 2017, the New York State Department of State (DOS) distributed an alert about a scam targeting payroll and HR professionals. According to the DOS, cybercriminals posing as company executives are emailing payroll and HR professionals to request lists of employees and their personal information. These emails may appear legitimate because they contain the name of the company’s chief executive officer. If you receive such an email, don’t include any payroll data, such as W-2 forms and Social Security numbers, in a response, or better yet, don’t respond at all.
The New York State Tax Department is aware of at least 37 businesses with New York employees that have fallen for this scam and believes more than 5,000 Social Security numbers may have been compromised.