The W-2 phishing scams are back. Fraudsters have learned that W-2 phishing scams can be highly effective when targeting businesses while they are handling and sending employee income-tax-related documents early in a new year. Once fraudsters obtain the information on W-2 tax forms about employees from businesses, they quickly attempt to commit tax identity theft by filing fraudulent tax returns to obtain victims’ refunds or to otherwise commit identity theft. Given that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is now accepting 2016 tax returns, we are seeing an increase in these W-2 phishing emails. Smaller and younger businesses, such as tech start-ups, can be particularly attractive to fraudsters since they are less likely to have formal policies and procedures in place for handling employee information.

Click here to read our complete WSGR Alert discussing the recent phishing scams.