
Your Accountant Is Stressed. Hackers Know It.

Tax season stress makes finance teams more vulnerable to social engineering attacks. Here is why, and how to protect your team.
Tax season is stressful, high-volume, and deadline-driven for finance teams - exactly the conditions attackers look for when timing social engineering attacks. Stress lowers scrutiny, and lowered scrutiny is precisely what phishing depends on.
Why Finance Teams Are Targeted This Time of Year
Finance staff during tax season are processing an unusually high volume of documents, requests, and deadlines. A fraudulent request blending into that volume is far less likely to trigger the "something feels off" instinct that might otherwise catch it.
Common Tax Season Attack Patterns
- •Fake W-2 or 1099 requests: Attackers impersonate employees or leadership requesting copies of tax documents containing sensitive personal data.
- •IRS impersonation: Emails or calls claiming to be from the IRS, creating urgency around a supposed filing issue.
- •Fraudulent wire transfer requests: Timed to coincide with genuine year-end and tax-related payment activity, making them harder to distinguish from legitimate requests.
- •Fake tax software or filing links: Malicious links disguised as tax preparation tools or e-filing confirmations.
Protecting Your Finance Team This Season
- •Require verbal or in-person verification for any tax document or wire transfer request, no exceptions during high-volume periods.
- •Remind finance staff that the IRS does not initiate contact via email or phone demanding immediate payment.
- •Build in slightly more processing time during peak season specifically to allow for verification steps.
- •Consider additional, brief security awareness reminders timed specifically to tax season.
Veracity Technologies helps Minneapolis-St. Paul finance teams build the verification habits and security awareness needed to withstand seasonal social engineering spikes.
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Schedule a free technology and cyber risk audit with our team.
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Published 2026-02-10 · Last reviewed December 2025