What to Do If You Receive an Unemployment Benefit Letter You Never Asked For
This is happening in Massachusetts, Washington and possibly in your area: scammers are trying to swoop in and take advantage of unemployment pandemic programs using your personal information.
The scam recently surfaced in Boston, where residents received emails and physical letters about their recent jobless claims. Problem? These residents did not apply for benefits.
In Massachusetts, people with valid unemployment claims may need to provide additional information to verify their identity, which may delay their payments. If you’ve heard of the headaches people go through trying to access their legitimate unemployment claims, you can understand how frustrating these fraudulent attempts are for all parties involved.
If you receive a notice of unemployment benefits that you did not ask for, it is important to notify your state employment office as soon as possible. Massachusetts has created an online form to help people report unemployment benefits scams online, but if you claim there weren’t a whole series of false reports, it might not have a dedicated system set up for the victims of that particular scam. You may have to wait a long time over the phone or chat.
But don’t stop at reporting an attempted scam with your state: if someone has enough information about you to file an unemployment claim on your behalf, they’ll have enough information to do a lot of damage to your rest of your financial life.
According to the Massachusetts Office of Labor and Human Resources Development, the personal data used to file these fraudulent claims comes from previous national data breaches. According to the Boston Globe , one scam app contained accurate information that included the victim’s full name, address, cell phone number, social security number, date of birth, and even their approximate salary.
You will want to file a complaint with your state attorney general and the FTC . It is unlikely that any of these agencies will contact you after you have done so, but that’s okay – the more information the public can provide, the easier it will be for the FTC and government agencies to track down fraudsters and take legal action against them. …
But wait, you’re not done yet. You also need to check your credit report to determine if your financial records have been compromised beyond this fake benefit claim. You can access a free credit report once a week for each credit bureau during a pandemic. While you are there, freeze your loan so that no one can open new credit accounts in your name. It’s free, but you must request it individually from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
Or if you feel overwhelmed, visit www.identitytheft.gov . Based on your circumstances, he will generate a step-by-step plan to help you recover from financial fraud.