Its tax season in the United States, which means the start of scamming season. W2 phishing scams and other tax-related email and telephone scams are rife at this time of year. Businesses need to be particularly careful. There have already been a number of victims of W2 phishing scams and the year has barely started.

2016 Saw a 400% Rise in Tax Season Phishing and Malware Incidents

Tax season in the United States runs from the start of January to April 15. It is the time of year when Americans calculate how much tax they need to pay from the previous financial year. It is also a busy time for cybercriminals. They will not be filing their own tax returns however. Instead they are concentrating on filing tax returns on behalf of their victims.

In order for tax refunds to be fraudulently filed, cybercriminals need information about their victims. Given the number of data breaches that have resulted in the theft of Social Security numbers in the past 12 months, 2017 could well be a record year for tax scams.

However, while past data breaches can provide cybercriminals with the information they need to file fraudulent tax returns, tax season usually sees a massive increase in phishing scams. The sole purpose of these scams is to get victims to reveal their Social Security numbers and the other personal information necessary to file tax returns.

Since the IRS started allowing Americans to e-file their tax returns, scammers had a new option for filing fraudulent tax returns. Phishing emails claiming to have been sent by the IRS request the recipients update their IRS e-file. A link is included in the emails for this purpose. Clicking on the link in the emails will not direct the recipient to the IRS website, but a spoofed version of the site. The information entered online is then used to e-file on behalf of the victims and the scammers pocket the tax refunds.

In 2016, the IRS reported a massive increase in phishing and malware incidents. These scams and malware infections increased by an incredible 400%. The massive rise in scams prompted the IRS to issue a warning to Americans about the scams, with the IRS confirming that it does not initiate contact with taxpayers by email to request personal or financial information.

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2017 is likely to be no different. Until April 15, tax-related scams are likely to be rife. All Americans should therefore be wary and must exercise caution.

Tax Season Sees a Massive Rise in W2 Phishing Scams

While consumers are at risk. Businesses in the United States are also extensively targeted at this time of year. The scammers impersonate CEOs, CFOs, and other individuals with authority and make requests for W2 data and other financial information about employees. The requests can be highly convincing and each year many employees fall for these types of scams. The scammers are well aware that some employees would be nervous about questioning a request that has been emailed from their SEO or CFO.

It is difficult to determine how many attempted W2 phishing scams took place last year, but in the first quarter of 2016, at least 41 U.S companies reported that they were the victims of successful W2 phishing scams. Employees were sent email requests to send W2 data by return and they responded. By doing so, employees’ tax information was sent directly to the scammers’ inboxes.

2017 is not yet a month old, yet already W2 phishing scams have been reported. The week, the Tipton County Schools District in western Tennessee reported that it had fallen victim to one of these W2 phishing scams. The attacker had posed as the director of the schools and had requested W2 tax data on all employees. W2 form data were then emailed to the attacker by an employee.

A similar email phishing scam was reported to have been used to attack 8 school districts in Missouri, according to a report by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. In this case, only one of the eight school districts responded to the scam: An employee from the Odessa School District was fooled and send the tax details of the district’s employees to the attackers.

It is not only schools that are being targeted. A hospital in Campbell County, Wyoming was attacked this week. According to a Campbell County Health news release, a hospital executive was impersonated in this attack. A 66-year old hospital worker fell for the scam and emailed W-2 information about employees as requested.

Preventing successful W2 phishing scams requires a combination of technological solutions, employee training, and updates to policies and procedures.  All employees with access to sensitive data must be advised of the risk and told to exercise caution. Policies should be introduced that require all email requests for employees’ tax information to be authenticated via telephone or other means. Organizations should also implement a robust spam filtering solution to prevent the scam emails from being delivered to employees’ inboxes.

However, if nothing is done to mitigate risk, 2017 is likely to be another record breaking year for the scammers.