Today I read about a new way to get people to turn over confidential information with trust to a fraudulent person without realizing what they were doing. The scam works this way:

• You work in payroll or accounting and receive an email that imitates an email from the CEO asking you for copies of employees W-2 forms.
  
• Since you don’t want to look bad to the CEO you immediately send the requested information.
  

You feel good about yourself because you hopefully made a favorable impression on the CEO by being prompt. Then employees start realizing their identity has been stolen. The number of employees at your employer is statistically too significant to be random. Eventually through research your release of the confidential information is discovered. You feel like a fool and your coworkers are overwhelmed in financial headaches trying to restore their financial life to the state it was in before the information was released.

Does this sound like it could not happen at your company? Do you feel that way because your company is “tech savvy” and immune to being fooled? Well I hate to tell you that working for a “tech savvy” company is no security. Snapchat and Seagate which are both in the technology business were fooled by this scam.

The fraud could have been eliminated if the person receiving the request took a moment and asked the simple question, “Why would the CEO need a copy of individual W-2 forms? The answer is there is no reasonable scenario where a CEO would need that information.

This is a lesson to us all that we need to be vigilant when we are on-line!! Yesterday I was downloading a bank statement from my bank’s website. I was asked one of the pre-established security questions, “What is name of your best friend from high school?” I did not have to look up the answer, I knew the answer! The funny coincidence is that he and I have recently started texting each other on a daily basis. So in yesterday’s text I told him why I had typed his name earlier in the day. He wrote back and said my post reminded him that even though it has been 40 years since we graduated, we are still able to pick up right where we left off each time we see one another. We saw each other last weekend for the first time in 2+ years and there was no awkward moment of re-acquainting ourselves with each other. I am thankful that I have him in my life. He is much more than a good answer to a “security question” he is a gift from God that I have been lucky enough to receive because of God’s grace. Celebrate the gifts of grace you receive from God and cherish them always!