Anthem/BlueCross Hacking Precautions

This is an urgent message from our health provider, Blue Cross/Anthem, which as you may already know, fell victim to hackers earlier this week. A possible 80 million sensitive customer records were breached by hackers. 

New York residents who may have been impacted by the cyber attack against Anthem, should be aware of scam emails campaigns targeting current and former Empire BlueCross BlueShield and Empire BlueCross members. 

These scams, designed to capture personal information (known as “phishing”) are designed to appear as if they are from Anthem, (Empire’s parent company), and the emails include a “click here” link for credit monitoring. These emails are NOT from Anthem or Empire. 

• DO NOT click on any links in email. 
• DO NOT reply to the email or reach out to the senders in any way. 
• DO NOT supply any information on the website that may open, if you have clicked on a link in email.
• DO NOT open any attachments that arrive with email.

Empire also is NOT calling members regarding the cyber attack and is not asking for credit card information or social security numbers over the phone.
This outreach is from scam artists who are trying to trick consumers into sharing personal data. There is no indication that the scam email campaigns are being conducted by those that committed the cyber attack, or that the information accessed in the attack is being used by the scammers. 
Empire will contact current and former members via mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service about the cyber attack with specific information on how to enroll in credit monitoring. Affected members will receive free credit monitoring and ID protection services. 

For more guidance on recognizing scam email, please visit the FTC Website: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0003-phishing. Additional information about the cyber attack against Anthem is available at www.AnthemFacts.com.

If you have ANY concerns or questions, contact your Union Rep. asap.