The FBI recently issued a warning concerning businesses and their use of direct depositing their paychecks. They revealed that a recent phishing scam has been cropping up and targeting how companies pay their employees, via their direct deposit software.
When this happens, a hacker uses social engineering to see who controls your company finances. This person is normally someone like your CEO, your HR director or someone in accounting. After this happens, they will send an email to one of the victim’s employees claiming that they lost their information and post a malicious link into your direct deposit software in the email. When someone clicks the link, the hacker gets access to your information and then sets up an account on your company’s site to steal any money that comes from the payroll.
Due to this problematic scam, the FBI recommends that you do not open any suspicious emails that you may receive from your HR director. You should also never open any suspicious emails, especially those that request wire transfers. Always double check with the person the email is supposedly from. If they didn’t send it, delete it and then report it.1