E-mail Scam Targeting Company Affects Employee Data

According to UGI Utilities, fraudsters in a phishing scam had 'acquired' the private data belonging to approximately 1,900 of the company's existing and ex-employees, on January 24, 2017.

UGI said the perpetrators could not hack its customer data while no customer detail got leaked. The scam impacted staff members of the company of the 2016 batch. UGI has taken action to notify them while provide them the necessary help, the business entity stated through one news release. The Morning Call posted this, January 26, 2017.

UGI didn't disclose the details of the breach, including the phishing electronic mail's nature or the kind of private data captured. Nonetheless, the incident appears somewhat same as one scam the IRS cautioned of the ongoing week.

In the kind of phishing scam, cyber-criminals pose as some corporate official or CEO of the target company followed with e-mailing that company's human resources else payroll section directing to dispatch documents such as W-2 forms related to employees, containing staff members' names, Social Security Numbers (SSN), dates-of-birth and other information.

Once such information is gathered, the fraudsters then utilize it for committing ID-theft, importantly tax ID-theft. Such kind of fraud takes place once a criminal files returns after impersonating some other person's name and SSN, usually making use of false info for making himself eligible to get a refund.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center explains that the fraudulent electronic mails can't always be distinctly said a scam since the messages frequently have a CEO's (chief executive officer) real name. Sometimes these even arrive from the real account of the CEO following the hacking of his account.

The IRS stated that different requests in the scam electronic mails are:

To dispatch to the e-mail writer separate 2016 W-2 (PDF) as well as synopsis of earnings of the company's entire W-2 employees to enable one fast review.

To dispatch the latest employee' list having thorough details such as name, home address, birth date, Social Security Number and salary.

To dispatch employee wages' W-2 copy list along with their 2016 tax statement in one PDF attachment to the e-mail, at the earliest.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/30/2017