Phishing Scam Update
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 
Cyber Updates and Warnings (updated Mon., April 25 at 2:30 p.m.)
As a reminder, please be very cautious as you respond to any correspondence you receive and take all precautions you can to protect yourself.
IRS Phone Numbers
If you receive correspondence from the IRS, to ensure it is legitimate, please call 800-829-1040. This is for all inquiries except for Identity Verification Services.
As the IRS begins to process your return, you may receive a letter to verify your identity. Please use 800-830-5084 to complete this process. Any other numbers on documents you receive may be fraudulent.
Also, if you receive a phone call from the IRS, it is almost certain to be fraudulent. The IRS communicates by mail only.
AllClear ID
As of April 25, only 693 people had signed up for AllClear ID. While that is an improvement on last week, it still is not half of our associates. Please contact me by email if you cannot find your letter with your unique redemption code. We will provide you with a PDF copy of your letter by email.
Additional information regarding AllClear ID can be found in this Buzz article: Important: Please sign up for AllClear ID
A New Scam
If you receive a letter and card from Bank of America, please notify djones@essex.com immediately. Do NOT activate this card from Bank of America.
You may receive a letter from Bank of America with a credit card attached to it, indicating it is your “Health Care Card” – this letter and card appears to be legitimate, however it is NOT. Criminals have contacted Bank of America stating that Essex requested these cards to be mailed to you. Essex did not make this request.
If you signed up for the FSA plan your credit card is Orange and Blue and is from WageWorks and looks like the card pictured here.
If you are on the PPO plan, your credit card is from Optum Health Bank HSA.
Questions or Concerns
Please continue to use the Hotline for any questions or concerns: 650-655-7851
Phishing Update: Protecting your Identity (updated Thurs., April 21 at 3:30 p.m.)
Please take 3 minutes to watch an important message from CFO/EVP Angela Kleiman regarding the phishing breach and protecting your identity. The video message is located on Buzz here: Phishing Update: Protecting Your Identity
Notice of Data Breach (updated Tues., April 5 at 11:50 a.m.)
As we notified you in our March 18, 2016 email and March 28, 2016 follow-up letter, Essex was the victim of a phishing scam that resulted in the release of IRS W-2 tax forms for the 2015 tax year.
We wanted to let you know that we have received reports of fraudulent activity taking place with respect to individuals’ tax returns. We urge you to be on the lookout for any such activity, including letters purporting to come from the IRS. If there are phone numbers contained on correspondence appearing to come from the IRS, we recommend you not call them but instead to dial 1-800-829-1040 to reach IRS customer service.
Below is an updated overview of what took place with respect to your W-2 forms.
What Happened? On or about March 17, 2016, Essex was the victim of a phishing attack that resulted in the release of employee W-2 tax forms for the 2015 tax year. Essex learned of the incident on the same day.
What Information Was Involved? The affected information included on the W-2 tax forms includes name and address, social security number, and financial information such as wages and tips, taxes withheld, and tax amounts paid.
What We are Doing. We have reported the incident to law enforcement and the IRS and are conducting an internal review of our systems to help further protect against similar attacks in the future. As you know, we also have made available to you 12 months of identity monitoring services from AllClear ID. You received additional information about this offer in our March 28, 2016 correspondence.
What You Can Do. We recommend that you remain vigilant for incidents of fraud and identity theft, including by regularly viewing your account statements and monitoring your free credit reports. We also recommend filing the IRS form 14039 and informing your personal tax agent about the incident.
As always, we urge you to be vigilant and to sign up for the identity theft monitoring services we offered in our March 28, 2016 letter.
To activate these services, please call AllClear and reference the individual number provided in your letter.
For More Information. If you have any further questions or concerns about this incident, you may continue to use the hotline we established at 650-655-7851.
Heightened Email Awareness (updated Mon., March 28 at 2:00 p.m.)
See related article on Heightened Email Awareness here.
Updates (updated Fri., March 25 at 3:25 p.m.)
After our discussion with the IRS today, following is some additional information you may find helpful:
- No one will be responsible for any fraudulent refunds. Anyone due a refund will still receive it, even if the IRS sent funds to someone else, although it may take up to 120 days for the IRS to process and investigate (they cannot expedite the time line)
- For anyone who has received their refund for tax year 2015, no further action is necessary. Although it is recommended that IRS form 14039 (and for CA employees form FTB 5532) are completed for future years
- For those who (1) have filed IRS form 14039 or (2) have been a victim of fraudulent fling, it is unlikely you will receive the pin in time for 2015 filing. However, you will receive the pin via mail no later than December to be used for tax year 2016 filing. Thereafter, a different pin will be issued by December of each year for future filings. With this pin, future filings may take a few days longer but not the full 120 days referenced above
- Remember to include your affidavits, IRS Form 14039 and FTB 5532 (if CA) with your returns
- IRS will only communicate via mail. If you moved since filing your last return, mail will go to the address last on file
- The IRS shared our affected population with the State of California and other affected states, however, we are still waiting for a response on how that information is handled.
Change of address
Please see instructions and forms below to complete and send to IRS if you have a change of address after you have filed your 2015 taxes or after you have sent in your Affidavit:
AllClear ID
Everybody should receive mail at their home address (the address that Essex has on record) early next week (the week of March 28). Please follow any instructions in the packet to ensure full coverage. Support representatives will be available at AllClear ID to answer any of your questions – the “800” number will be in the correspondence you receive.
Update: Call IRS Identity Theft Line to check your tax return status (updated Weds., March 23 at 10:28 a.m.)
If you have not yet filed this year's tax return, we recommend you call the IRS Identity Theft Line at 1-800-908-4490 to confirm whether someone has filed a tax return under your name.
As of this posting, the approximate wait time to speak with a representative is 15 minutes.
Update: File your tax return ASAP (updated Weds., March 23 at 9:40 a.m.)
Please file your tax returns as soon as possible. If you normally file electronically, and are informed by the IRS that someone has already tried to file a tax return, then proceed with filing a paper return as instructed by the IRS.
For those of you who have called in or sent emails, thank you for all of your questions. Some of them have helped us identify other ways we can proceed and/or communicate with you. As we obtain any further information, we will post updates here on Buzz.
Taxes
For those of you who have not yet filed your taxes but have sent in the IRS Form 14039 and the CA Form 3552, we suggest you move ahead with filing your taxes in paper format and attach a copy of your completed forms to your Tax Return.
All those affected have already been placed on an "IRS Watch List," so as returns are filed the IRS is alerted to the fact that there has been a Phishing Scam. Attaching your completed form will help them quickly identify your form as authentic.
Credit Monitoring
You will soon hear directly from AllClear ID, the company we have engaged to monitor your credit. Please review the documentation and if you have any questions, there will be a direct line to AllClear ID where a representative will be available to help you.
Questions
The hotline number you can call is 650-655-7851.
Documents
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 21:45