Unemployment Fraud is Running Rampant - Paper Trails

This week, we’ve had a slew of people calling saying that they received unemployment notices for employees who have not filed for unemployment.

We spoke to the state this morning, and they believe that scammers are randomly plugging in social security numbers to the unemployment system in an attempt to file false claims. It does not appear that there have been any data breaches that are resulting in this. It’s totally random, and a weakness in the state’s system to allow such random fraud to occur.

If you or any of your employees believe that they’ve been a victim of unemployment fraud, the state is encouraging you to take the following steps: 

• First and foremost – Report the fraud to the state on their website. This will allow them to immediately stop the fraud on your account and investigate.
• Report the fraud to the National Center for Disaster Fraud Hotline at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form
• If you think someone is using your personal information to open accounts, file taxes or make purchases, visit https://www.identitytheft.gov to report and recover from identity theft.
• Additional identity theft resources can be found at https://www.maine.gov/ag/privacy/identity_theft.shtml or https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/report-identity-theft or (866) 720-5721

The state is responding to fix this issue in the following ways:

• Temporarily freezing all new unemployment claims for a short period of time.
• Creating a state-federal task force to detect and prevent fraud
• Coordinating with financial institutions to identify suspicious accounts
• Reviewing system changes needed to increase fraud detection
• Blocking web addresses linked to fraud here in Maine and in other states.

If you have questions or concerns about this, we encourage you to contact Maine Department of Labor at 1-800-593-7660.

Please let us know if there is any way that we can assist you through this already crazy times!

The Team @ Paper Trails