Tax scam targets Minn. nonprofits, schools, tribal groups

Minnesota nonprofits, school districts and tribal groups have been the target of a new tax scam, according to warnings released Wednesday by the Internal Revenue service.

Scammers clone the email accounts of high-level managers and use them to request lists of employee tax forms and social security numbers.

Dan Hendrickson, spokesperson for the state's Better Business Bureau, said it's a new wrinkle on an old scam.

"It really used to be targeted at the for-profit business," he said. "Now we're seeing it targeting the non-profit sector, health care organizations, tribal organizations, really they're just expanding the scope, running the same scam, but broadening their target base."

The tax scam lifted personal financial information from thousands of Bloomington School employees earlier this month.

Hendrickson says all employees with access to company tax information should be trained to safely handle the data.