The payroll industry sees a lot of scammers, especially in start-up companies and during tax season. Scammers are only getting smarter, so you have to take the precautionary steps to keep you and your employees safe from payroll fraud.
Make sure you and your team are careful when submitting any information online. You should only send sensitive information to an email address and person you trust and submit personal information to a website you recognize and know is secure.
Popular Scams Right Now
Request to Update Bank Information
The most common payroll scam is in the form of updates to employees’ bank account information on file for direct deposits. There are two different versions of this fraudulent activity. The first is when scammers pretend to be an employee and contact your HR Department or Payroll company and provide them with a bogus new account number and routing number, or just their own account information. This causes the employee to lose payroll deposits which either did not go anywhere or went into someone else’s account.
In another version of this, scammers try to get an employee’s bank information by impersonating their coworker and sending an email asking them to update their information for their direct deposit. Let your employees know to be cautious if they receive any emails like this. If they think it is someone from your company that needs their information, have them give them a call and translate their information over the phone. You or your employees should never send personal information through email, especially if you are not expecting to have to update anything.
Fake IRS Notices
Businesses will receive, what looks like, a notice from the IRS stating that they owe money for fees or late payroll taxes. The letter instructs them to call the number listed and provide their credit card information over the phone to take care of the payment due. Companies that recognized the spam or knew they paid their payments in full and on time called the IRS and were told the letter was never sent. It is important to verify that information is correct, even if it looks like a notice came from a government agency.
Charleston Payroll’s Commitment to Security
We are a completely paperless payroll company which means that all information gathered and received from our clients is over the Internet or phone. Charleston Payroll has safety features and precautions in place to make sure your information is secure and every document we send to you is password protected to ensure no one but you can access it. If you have any concerns about the security of your information, feel free to contact us and we will give you peace of mind.