Unemployment ID theft

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Jan 3, 2006
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Location
Ohio
Just found out the hard way that apparently this is a big deal going on right now. Got a letter in the mail from the unemployment office confirming my new password for online access. One problem: I've never contacted the unemployment office. Sounded pretty fishy to me. Called the unemployment office, and they confirm there's a whole lot of this going on right now. Looked at my credit reports and it doesn't look like anybody has opened new credit lines in my name, but I've put a freeze and fraud alerts on my credit. Got the fraud report submitted through their website, we'll see what comes out of it. Gave our payroll person the heads up, and it seems I'm not the only one who has experienced this.

If you get odd letters from your state's unemployment office, don't just dismiss them!
 
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Got a letter last week asking me to verify my info, they gave me a special phone # to call. Called it the next morning and they said they would call me back because i was #177 in the que. Lady that called me back said uh oh, looks like someone tried to claim unemployment with your info back in October but the claim was flagged because they couldn't answer some questions correctly.
 
The state of OK was attacked in the past year by Indian scammers who were trying to claim unemployment checks for every valid name they could find.

You most likely got hit by the same tactic.. just a numbers game.
 
My understanding is deadbeats were taking advantage of Covid loose restrictions to falsely claim unemployment. If they are successful, they get the money and you get a tax bill later.

I hate deadbeats.
 
This happened to me as well, the state of Illinois has confirmed. My employer has contested it and put a stop to it but apparently I wasn't the only one affected at this company.

I've also added freezes to my credit and am monitoring for suspicious activity.

I'm becoming a firm believer in thieves deserving their hands chopped off.
 
You have to keep on top of your credit reports and always keep in mind when these scammers call you not to give them any personal information that they may need in order to use your identity/credentials to scam you.
 
My understanding is deadbeats were taking advantage of Covid loose restrictions to falsely claim unemployment. If they are successful, they get the money and you get a tax bill later.

I hate deadbeats.

I hate em too! Feel bad for our friends in CA and the scams they have been subject too through concerning COVID relief. Right out of prisons too. Taxpayer will pay for that.
 
Just found out the hard way that apparently this is a big deal going on right now. Got a letter in the mail from the unemployment office confirming my new password for online access. One problem: I've never contacted the unemployment office. Sounded pretty fishy to me. Called the unemployment office, and they confirm there's a whole lot of this going on right now. Looked at my credit reports and it doesn't look like anybody has opened new credit lines in my name, but I've put a freeze and fraud alerts on my credit. Got the fraud report submitted through their website, we'll see what comes out of it. Gave our payroll person the heads up, and it seems I'm not the only one who has experienced this.

If you get odd letters from your state's unemployment office, don't just dismiss them!
It’s big. T Rowe Price had their employees hit with this and set up protections for them.
 
You have to keep on top of your credit reports and always keep in mind when these scammers call you not to give them any personal information that they may need in order to use your identity/credentials to scam you.
Everyone needs to freeze their credit and only unfreeze it temporarily only when absolutely necessary. I never answer a phone number that's not in my contacts ... if it's something important they will leave a message.
 
My company has 1800 employees around the country and so far 60 have had this happen.
5 of them are in my branch of only 35 total employees.
 
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