The BBB Issues Alert to Businesses for the “CEO or Boss Scam”
As tax season goes into high gear, so do tax scammers and the BBB is alerting companies of a scam cropping up aimed directly at businesses.
The CEO or Boss Scam – as it’s known – involves a phishing e-mail sent to the accounting department using the name of the company CEO or boss, instructing them to wire money. If that money is sent before the company determines the email is fake, there is virtually no way to retrieve the funds.
In another version of the scam, the accounting department may receive a fake email appearing to be from the head of the company. The emails generally, are directed to accounting, payroll, or human resources asking for W-2 forms for employees; which exposes all the information a scammer needs for identity theft. Please note, this scam is sometimes referred to as a business email compromise or business email spoofing.
Chicago and Northern Illinois Better Business President Steve Bernas says “Leaders of companies need to inform their accounting departments that these types of e-mails could be coming in. No one is immune from these attempts, in fact a scammer tried to hit the BBB last season. An alert accountant questioned the transaction, which exposed it as a phishing e-mail.”
Anyone encountering this scam is urged to act. Report it to the BBB Scamtracker,forward it to mailto:phishing@irs.gov and place “W2 Scam” in the subject line, and or file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation)
