Employers in Tehama County are being targeted by a difficult to detect scam. An e-mail is sent to an employer that mimics the work e-mail address and format of an actual employee, and requests a change to the employee’s automatic payroll direct deposit bank account. A new account number and routing number is included. Employers are advised to check with their employees directly before making such a change. The Tehama County District Attorney’s Office says the emails can be traced to Canada, but it’s not known where they actually originate. The FBI has been notified of the scam. Tehama County authorities also continue to get reports of some other popular scams, including calls claiming to be from the IRS or Social Security. Those calls are often automated. Another insidious rip-off has been popping up lately in which a senior citizen gets a call from someone claiming to be a relative, usually a grandchild, saying they’ve been arrested and need bail money. They sometimes hand the phone off to someone else posing as law enforcement or an attorney trying to back up the story. The names of the victims and their relatives are sometimes farmed from social media profiles. An uptick in scam calls has also been reported by the sheriff’s office in Trinity County in which someone is impersonating their deputies and they ask that such calls be reported to 623-2611. Anytime someone online or on the phone is asking for money, it should be met with suspicion.