BBB warns of unemployment insurance scam

The?Better Business Bureau (BBB) is issuing a warning for an unemployment insurance fraud scam that has emerged over the last few months.? 

How the fraud works:  

People learn about the fraud when they get a notice from their state unemployment benefits office or their employer about their supposed application for unemployment benefits. If this happens to you, it means someone is misusing your personal information, including your Social Security number and date of birth. Act fast.? 

The unemployment rate clocked in at 11.1% last month according to the?U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. You or someone you know may have had their personal information stolen and used to apply for state unemployment benefits. What you might not know, is that this may have been part of an organized criminal effort targeting U.S state unemployment systems.? 

A?New York Times article in May 2020?claimed that according to a Secret Service memo, there has been evidence of unemployment insurance fraud emerging in a handful of states. Investigators estimate losses could reach hundreds of millions of dollars and noted that attackers appear to have extensive records of people’s personally identifiable information.? 

What to do IMMEDIATELY if someone files for unemployment with your personal identifiable information: 

Contact the HR Department where you work or last worked. 

Contact the State Unemployment Office immediately. 

Inform your banking institutions. 

File a report to your local police department.? 

Change passwords to sensitive accounts including banking, email and other personal accounts. 

Contact the three major credit reporting agencies (Experian,?Equifax,?TransUnion) to add an alert on your credit file and search for any other fraudulent transactions on your credit. report.? Visit for FREE,?https://www.annualcreditreport.com. 

Freeze your credit reports. It is a free service provided by all three credit reporting agencies. You can always temporarily unfreeze them for free when applying for credit. 

Report identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) at?IdentityTheft.gov. 

Keep all documents and records of conversation. 

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