Scammers prey on the unemployed

 

Bill Knight column for 1-7, 8 or 9, 2021

  “Damned pandemic” may seem like a clumsy line in an awkward poem, but it’s the obvious background to much of the misery we feel. Now – in the “kicking while you’re down” department, those who prey on the jobless may be marked for miseries of their own making.

Law enforcement is cracking down on an increase in crooks filing fraudulent unemployment claims for unsuspecting folks, which the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) estimates topped 210,000 incidents last year.

Besides IDES investigators, the problem now involves local and federal law enforcement, the state Department of Labor’s inspector general, Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office, State’s Attorney and U.S. Attorney’s Offices, all stepping up their vigilance in fighting the crime.

Identity thieves unfortunately aren’t new, but in addition to hackers filing phony tax returns or opening new credit cards in victims’ names, etc., the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic such as job loss, have made people vulnerable in different ways.

One scheme involves using victims’ Personal Identity Information (PII) previously stolen from retailers, credit-card companies or other sites. For instance, people may receive unexpected unemployment debit cards – which aren’t pre-loaded with monetary balances and tempt recipients to respond, which can let scammers gain access to account information to divert or deplete victims’ money.

“This is now another aggressive maneuver used by bad actors looking to defraud and disrupt states’ unemployment systems,” said IDES’ Rebecca Cisco.

In another approach, fraudsters were filing false claims with fake employers’ addresses that actually were the criminals themselves. So, when IDES sent correspondence to the fake employers, the hackers were getting people’s PII included in those notices.

“As a result, IDES is suppressing all PII from employer notices starting December 23, 2020, including employee Social Security numbers,” the agency said.

IDES also is cooperating with businesses to verify workers eligibility for jobless benefits without disclosing PII, which, again, is no longer included in correspondence, and asks employers to register with the free State Information Data Exchange System (SIDES) at https://uidataexchange.org/.

Warnings to watch for are those unforeseen debit cards, your employer alerting you to a claim filed in your name, you needing to file a legitimate claim for unemployment insurance and discovering one already exists, and genuine communication from the Internal Revenue Service about unreported unemployment income or other discrepancies.

If you see such signs:

* don’t activate an unexplained debit card mailed to you;

* don’t contact KeyBank;

* report the fraudulent claim at www2.illinois.gov/ides/Pages/Report-Identity-Theft.aspx, or phone IDES toll-free at (800) 814-0513

* request free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com and review them for other suspicious activities;

* freeze credit reports at the three main reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion);

* make passwords stronger; and

* use the Federal Trade Commission’s protections against other fraud at https://identitytheft.gov/databreach.

 

“In most instances of fraud, IDES’ integrity measures stop the unemployment claim and prevent payments from being made before hearing from you,” the department said.

Neither victims nor employers are responsible for fraudulent payments, but everyone indirectly pays since the revenues come from the state.

Because of the extent of the problem, there has been high call volume, so try to be patient while waiting for IDES representatives to call back and start the process of protecting you and prosecuting the villainous vultures stealing money from the public.