Amarillo Police Warn of New Open Enrollment Scam Targeting Your Paycheck

It's that great time of the year that a lot of people working in Amarillo have to deal with, open enrollment. If you are fortunate to work at a place that offers insurance, it can be a blessing and a curse.

This is the time of year that you find out if your insurance company has changed. You also find out if the price is going up. For the most part, that answer is always yes. The question is just how much.

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Luckily, at our company, it is not a whole lot, but it is going up. So this is why, at this time of year, you need to be aware of a new scam going around. It involves your human resource department and open enrollment. Great, you must be thinking. I know I was.

Amarillo Police Warn About Fake HR Emails

The Amarillo Police Department was out with the warning:

In this week’s scam, you receive an email that appears to be from your organization’s human resources (HR) department. The email seems to be related to your compensation and benefits, and contains a link for you to click so that you can log in to your HR portal to find out more information. If you click the link, you’ll be taken to a login page.

How the Scam Works

The first worry is that the email looks like it comes from your very own human resources department. It is not from your company. If you do not verify, you could be out a lot. They could end up taking your paycheck. So this is very important not to fall for.

However, the email you received is actually a phishing scam, and the login page is a fake page created by cybercriminals to trick you into entering your user information. If you enter your user credentials, scammers will steal this information and use it to log in to your organization’s real HR portal. Once the cybercriminals have gained access to your profile, they change your direct deposit information so that your paychecks will be sent directly to their bank accounts!

Protect Yourself and Your Paycheck

All of your hard-earned money that you have been working many hours for could easily be transferred somewhere else. What a headache that could be.

I know it's open enrollment time, and clicking on a link inside an email seems legit. I would make sure you went right to the official website to find your open enrollment information. That is the safest way. Always verify.

Keep your information safe, and especially keep that paycheck safe.