October 04, 2018

Direct Deposit Scam

Category: Payroll

Posted by Meagan

Miller Management will never call our client’s employees to verify their bank account information. But there are scammers around who may try to do so. If a call or email ever seems suspicious, it probably is. We’ve gathered a few articles to shed some light on a current scam, and steps you can take to avoid falling into this trap.

Potential Scams:

“In one version of the scam, a person pretending to be from the company’s HR department sends an email asking an employee to click on a provided link and log into his or her self-service account. The alleged reason for the log-on request is for the employee to view a confidential email from HR, view changes to the employee’s account or confirm that the account should not be deleted.

When an employee clicks on the provided link and enters the self-service credentials, the employee actually is giving the information to the fraudster, who can then access the account to view the employee’s W-2 and pay stub information. The fraudster also can change the employee’s direct deposit instructions, as well as the e-mail address used for change notifications to prevent the victim from finding out that changes were made.”

Source: Xpert HR

“Be wary of messages you receive outside of normal work hours: This is when many phishing emails are sent. If an email contains a link, hover your cursor over it before clicking to confirm the URL is associated with your workplace. And even if you don’t see any immediate red flags, forward emails that ask for your login credentials to your HR department to make sure they’re legitimate.”

Source: Mental Floss

Steps to Reduce Your Risk:

“The FBI provides multiple tips companies can use to avoid the scam. These include:

• Instruct employees to hover their cursor over hyperlinks included in emails they receive to view the actual URL. Ensure the URL is actually related to or associated with the company it purports to be from.
• Instruct employees to refrain from supplying log-in credentials or personally identifying information in response to any email.
• Direct employees to forward suspicious requests for personal information to the information technology or human resources department.
• Ensure that log-in credentials used for payroll purposes differ from those used for other purposes, such as employee surveys.”

Source: NewsWeek

Feel free to reach out to your Miller Management representative if you receive something that you have questions about. Whether it seems like a phishing email, or just a question about your account in general; we are hear to partner with you for Kingdom work.