MADISON, WI (Wisconsin Radio Network) – Security experts at the IRS are warning businesses about an increase in so-called Spear Phishing scams.
Businesses should be on the lookout for targeted scam emails aiming for their financial information. The scam is called spear phishing, and the scammers will send spoofed emails to pose as fellow employees asking for information or checks.
Spokesman Christopher Miller says scammers are really aiming for big payouts of personally identifiable information. “Not only are businesses being targeted, but we’re also seeing payroll companies being targeted, and even tax preparers.” He says spear-phishers can get a lot of information. “If they’re successful, these cyber-thieves are getting large scale information on employees and clients, and that’s why we’re seeing an uptick in this sort of activity.”
Miller says you should be training your employees to be critical about what information they send in an email, and if there’s some confusion, contact the person making the request directly to make sure it’s a legitimate mail.
