A new scam is hitting email Inboxes nationwide, which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is warning employers to be aware of and not respond to the request. The scam emails are being sent to employers requesting employee Form I-9 information. The emails appear to come from USCIS, but they are from a fake address: news@uscis.com.
Even though the email mentions USCIS and the Office of the Inspector General, you should not submit any information or respond back. While employers are required to have a completed Form I-9 for every employee, they are not required to submit the forms to USCIS. The emails are a scam to get names, social security numbers and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII) for reasons of identity theft. Protect your employees’ information by not responding to this phony request.
If you receive an email and you are not sure if it is a scam, you can forward it to the agency’s webmaster at uscis.webmaster@uscis.dhs.gov.