Payday lending firm Moneytree is the latest company to alert current and former employees that their tax data -- including Social Security numbers, salary and address information -- was accidentally handed over directly to scam artists.
Seattle-based Moneytree sent an email to employees on March 4 stating that "one of our team members fell victim to a phishing scam and revealed payroll information to an external source."
"Moneytree was apparently targeted by a scam in which the scammer impersonated me and asked for an emailed copy of certain information about the Company's payroll including Team Member names, home addresses, social security numbers, birthdates and W2 information," Moneytree co-founder Dennis Bassford wrote to employees.
The message continued:
"Unfortunately, this request was not recognized as a scam, and the information about current and former Team Members who worked in the US at Moneytree in 2015 or were hired in early 2016 was disclosed. The good news is that our servers and security systems were not breached, and our millions of customer records were not affected. The bad news is that our Team Members' information has been compromised."
Read more at krebsonsecurity.com.