Please be aware of a common phishing scam targeting newly-hired employees: an email or text arrives from someone claiming to be the CEO of their new company, and asking to carry out some small task like purchasing a gift card, sharing personal information, or wiring funds to another business. The new employee, eager to make a good impression and unfamiliar with the company culture, is tempted to do as asked.
To reduce the chances of such a scam succeeding, new employees should be warned not to trust unsolicited messages from unfamiliar addresses or numbers, be wary of unusual requests, and check with a trusted source within the company before replying.
( How does this happen? We’re not sure, but our best guess is that the scammers scrape LinkedIn for job changes and corporate titles, cross-referencing that info with email addresses and phone numbers stolen in data breaches.)
(Featured image by iStock.com/Ton Photograph)