Nation-wide Unemployment Scam

About

While our country experiences a spike in unemployment due to Covid-19 shelter-in-place orders, criminals are fraudulently filing for unemployment benefits using the names and personally identifiable information of victims that they have acquired through prior data breaches such as the 2017 Equifax data breach.

You may learn that you are a victim when your state's unemployment benefits office or your employer sends you a notice regarding your supposed application for benefits.

How to Proceed If You Are a Victim of This Scam 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommends the following steps if you find yourself a victim of this scam.

1. Report the fraud to your employer. Keep a record of who you spoke with and when.
2. Report the fraud to your state unemployment benefits agency.
   • The FTC recommends online filing for timeliness and for the agency to process faster.
   • The FTC also recording the confirmation/case number you receive and to record who you spoke with & when.
   • NY State's Unemployment Insurance Benefits Fraud page.
   • List of all state agencies.
3. Visit IdentityTheft.gov to report the fraud to the FTC and get help with the next important recovery steps. These include placing a free, one-year fraud alert on your credit, getting your free credit reports, and closing any fraudulent accounts opened in your name. IdentityTheft.gov also will help you add a free extended fraud alert or credit freeze to your credit report. These make it more difficult for an identity thief to open new accounts in your name.
4. Review your credit reports often. For the next year, you can check your reports every week for free through AnnualCreditReport.com. This can help you spot any new fraud quickly.
5. Be mindful that if a fraudulent claim is processed successfully, the money may be deposited in your bank account. The fraudsters may try to contact you impersonating the your state unemployment office! If you are fooled by this money mule scam, it will cause you endless grief.

Even if you are not a victim of this particular criminal activity consider creating irs.gov and ssa.gov accounts. In the past similar spread wide impersonating scams have resulted in stolen tax returns and other chaotic situations that are time-consuming to resolve.

For more help, please contact ITS at its@manhattan.edu or 718-862-7973.