Fake unemployment claims - surprising info at a meeting last week

[underpants]

The organization I work for has, I think, about 200 employees. Maybe 250 or somewhere in between.
Last week at the end of a Zoom meeting the higher up on the call asked us if we knew of any of our employees who had fake unemployment claims. This was about our department I guess you’d say. We were a bit confused and frankly off put. After questions we determined that they weren’t asking about our employees filing fake claims but having claims filed in their name.

Apparently 28 people across the organization had had unemployment claims made in their name. That included the higher up on the call. TWENTY EIGHT! That means someone got their names, addresses, and SSN. That’s somewhere between 11-14% of the organization.

I had heard that the Va Employment Commission had been overwhelmed at the beginning of the shut down. Other states as well I am sure. I guess in the swirl and mess the criminal element jumped in.

Our organization isn’t aware of any hack but it’s being looked into. They are offering free credit monitoring to those affected.

[mopinko]

1. there were a bunch of ppl who got the ue claims hijacked in 20.

including my ex, who i dont think ever did get it straightened out.
this is a new one, but not surprised if these state systems are this insecure.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Had a lot of that in WA state during the pandemic...

not sure if they all got straightened out, but it cost the state billions.

[Sympthsical]

3. This was a problem in California during Covid

I work in HR, so that was . . . fun.

On the one hand, they made the system quicker and easier to work through to make claims during a national emergency. However, that increased ease also made fraud easier.

It was pretty bad. The entire EDD system got completely gummed up on account. They're going to either spend years trying to straighten it all out or just throw their hands up in the air and let the fraud go because there was so much of it.

[Hugin]

4. The scams have been on the upswing since around March.

Phone and cable cramming are en-vogue too.

Fee scrubbing, you name it.

I believe it is a combination of sanctions and the GrOPper’s ‘fund raising’ activities.

[dsc]

5. I had one a few months ago

the state has been pretty worthless I have to say.

[gldstwmn]

6. Colorado paid out $73 million in false claims during the first year of the pandemic.

The state's system was so antiquated that it was unable to handle the amount of requests and so the governor ordered that the claims be paid and not held up so people could survive. I am not sure why we were still using a system that was so antiquated when the state could certainly have afforded to upgrade over the years. I think maybe it was because unemployment has always been relatively low here and no one foresaw an event that would take it completely offline like that.