Photo by Adam Cvik. 

NATE LEMEN | STAFF REPORTER | nlemen@butler.edu

Four thousand Scotty’s Holdings, LLC employees had their tax forms stolen in an email phishing scam on Jan. 30.  Scotty’s Holdings has businesses in four different states and totals 19 restaurants, including Butler’s very own Scotty’s Dawghouse.

Someone posing at Scott Wise, the founder and owner of Scotty’s Holdings, requested W-2 information from all the employees. The scam email account was very similar to Wise’s actual email, but not exactly the same.

In a statement Wise gave to WTHR Channel 13, he stated no customer information was stolen, but that every employee was affected. The W-2 forms include employee’s names and their addresses, along with their social security number and their wages.

Scams like this have been happening all across the country. The Internal Revenue Service, the government’s tax-collecting agency, recently released a statement warning businesses to be on the lookout for people posing as owners asking for personal information.

So far, the IRS, FBI and state and local police have all become involved in the case. Scotty’s Holdings has also been in contact with the Federal Trade Commision. There is no knowledge on how close the perpetrator is to being caught.

Scotty’s is offering all employees free credit monitoring for up to one year in response to the breach. They are also advising employees put a fraud alert on their credit cards or look into a security freeze.

In an email to all employees of his businesses, Wise offered his condolences.

“Lastly, I wanted to apologize, personally, on behalf of my entire company for what has transpired,” he said.  

“It hurts my heart that we are going thru this and it is affecting you and all others (including myself).  Please know I will be doing everything I can to make this right with you. I appreciate all you do in this company. We will move on from this and be a better, more successful, stronger company and family of employees, I assure you.”