If you get an e-mail from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charging your company with an employment violation, be careful.

The e-mail is almost certainly a fraud that entices the recipient to click to “get the details” of the complaint – and then infects your computer with a Trojan Horse virus. The contents of the e-mail include an EEOC logo under the subject line and contain purported language from the EEOC under a subject heading “Employer Liability for Harassment.”

The EEOC has sent out warnings about the scam and what the body of the e-mail typically looks like:

FROM: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
SUBJECT: “Harassment Complaint Update For”
This is an automated email that confirms the registration of harassment complaint #number…this harassment complaint can lead to law enforcement action. You can download and print a copy of this complaint to keep for your personal records here…Our staff will keep you updated regarding the status of our investigation…To check the status of your complaint access:

Then the unsuspecting reader clicks on a link for details and ends up with a virus.

How do you know if you’re really being contacted by EEOC? An e-mail of any type is the first clue that the contact is bogus. EEOC policy notes that any contact with an employer regarding complaints or violations is always done via the U.S. Postal Service and never by e-mail.

Tags: Add new tag, e-mail, eeoc. equal employment opportunity commission, trojan horse, virus