It’s February. Tax season is ramping up. Your accountant is getting busier. Your bookkeeper is pulling documents. Everyone’s thinking about W-2s, 1099s, and deadlines.
Here’s the part nobody puts on the calendar: the first real tax-season headache usually isn’t a form.
It’s a cybersecurity scam.
And there’s one that shows up before April even gets close because it’s easy, believable, and aimed directly at small businesses. You may already have it sitting in someone’s inbox.
The W-2 Scam: A Common Cybersecurity Threat to Small Businesses
Here’s how it usually starts:
Someone in your company, often whoever handles payroll or HR, receives an email that looks like it’s from the CEO, owner, or another senior executive.
The message is short and urgent:
“Hey, I need copies of all employee W-2s for a meeting with the accountant. Can you send them over ASAP? I’m slammed today.”
It looks normal. The tone feels right. Tax season is busy, so the urgency doesn’t raise alarms. The request itself sounds reasonable.
So the employee sends the W-2s.
Except the email wasn’t from the CEO. It came from a criminal using a spoofed email address or a look-alike domain, a common tactic in business email compromise attacks.
Now that criminal has every employee’s:
- Full legal name
- Social Security number
- Home address
- Salary information
Everything needed for identity theft. Everything needed to file fraudulent tax returns before your employees do.
What Happens After a W-2 Data Breach
This is how most businesses find out:
An employee files their tax return. It’s rejected.
“Return already filed for this Social Security number.”
Someone already filed in their name. Already claimed the refund. Already got the money.
Now that employee is dealing with the IRS, credit monitoring, identity theft protection, and months of paperwork because of a document they didn’t even realize had been exposed.
Multiply that by your entire payroll.
Now imagine explaining to your team that their personal information was compromised because of a fake email.
That’s not just a cybersecurity issue.
That’s a trust issue.
An HR crisis.
A compliance problem.
A potential legal and reputational disaster.
Why This Tax Scam Works So Well
This isn’t a sloppy phishing email. It’s effective because it’s designed for real business environments.
It works because:
The timing is perfect.
W-2 requests are expected in February. Nobody questions why someone would ask for them now.
The request is realistic.
It’s not “wire $50,000” or “buy gift cards.” It’s a normal payroll request that happens every tax season.
The urgency feels normal.
“I’m slammed today, can you send this quickly?” doesn’t raise red flags in a busy office.
The sender looks legitimate.
Attackers research their targets. They know executive names. Sometimes they know your accountant’s name. That’s why these email attacks bypass basic spam filters.
Employees want to be helpful.
Especially when the request appears to come from leadership. Urgency overrides verification.
This is why email security and user awareness matter just as much as antivirus software.
How to Protect Your Business Before This Scam Hits
The good news: this scam is preventable. And stopping it requires policy and culture not just technology.
Create a “no W-2s via email” policy.
No exceptions. Sensitive payroll and HR data should never be sent as email attachments. If the request comes via email, the answer is always “no,” even if it appears to be from leadership.
Verify sensitive requests through a second channel.
Phone call. In-person conversation. Internal chat. Anything other than replying to the email. Always use contact information you already trust.
Hold a short tax-season security briefing now.
Ten minutes with payroll and HR staff explaining what these scams look like and how to respond. Awareness is one of the most effective cybersecurity defenses.
Secure payroll and HR systems with multi-factor authentication.
If credentials are phished, MFA becomes the last line of defense protecting employee data.
Make verification part of your culture.
Employees who double-check requests even from executives should be supported, not criticized. When questioning is encouraged, scams fail.
Five simple rules. Easy to implement this week. Strong enough to stop the first wave.
The Bigger Tax-Season Cybersecurity Picture
The W-2 scam is only the beginning.
Between now and April, small businesses are often targeted with:
- Fake IRS notices demanding immediate payment
- Phishing emails posing as tax software updates
- Spoofed messages from “your accountant” containing malicious links
- Fraudulent invoices disguised as tax-related expenses
Tax season is prime time for cybercriminals because everyone is distracted, moving fast, and handling sensitive financial data.
Businesses that get through tax season clean aren’t lucky.
They’re prepared.
They have clear policies. They train their teams. They use proactive IT security and email protection to stop threats before damage occurs.
Is Your Business Ready?
If your policies are in place and your team knows what to watch for, that’s great you’re ahead of most small businesses.
If not, now is the time. Not after the first incident.
If this sounds like your business, book a 10-minute discovery call and we’ll review:
- Payroll and HR access controls
- Multi-factor authentication coverage
- W-2 verification policies
- Email security protections that catch spoofing
- The one security gap most small businesses overlook
If it doesn’t sound like you, that’s good. But chances are you know a business owner it does sound like. Forward them this article it may save them a very expensive headache.
[Book your 10-minute discovery call here]
Because tax season is stressful enough without identity theft on top of it.
