{"id":26692,"date":"2021-02-25T16:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T21:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/household\/?p=26692"},"modified":"2021-02-25T17:01:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T22:01:46","slug":"unemployment-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm.com\/household\/unemployment-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Unemployment Fraud: How Families and Their Employees Should Respond"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"unemployment-fraud\"

Here is what families and their employees need to know about unemployment fraud and how to respond if they may be victims.<\/p><\/div>\n

Identity theft and fraud are not new. According to Javelin Strategy & Research<\/a>, financial losses due to identity fraud reached $16.9 billion in 2019. It impacted 5.1 percent of consumers. Fraudsters have many tactics to steal identities and are always on the lookout for new scams.<\/p>\n

The CARES Act of March 2020 allowed more workers to claim unemployment benefits due to the pandemic including those who were typically not eligible for unemployment and those whose benefits expired. This also created unprecedented opportunities for criminals to use stolen identities including those of nannies and other household employees.<\/p>\n

Criminals likely obtained personal information during previous data breaches \u2013 like those involving banks, insurance companies, and large employers. The Equifax security breach of 2017 alone exposed the personal information of 147 million people. Scammers use these stolen identities to file fraudulent claims and illegally collect benefits in the names of individuals who are likely still working.<\/p>\n

Those who are employed and not collecting unemployment are often targeted because they are less likely to have an active claim that would prevent the criminals from filing for fraudulent benefits.<\/p>\n

How widespread is the problem? In New York, for example, the state\u2019s labor agency has referred more unemployment fraud cases to federal prosecutors over the past 10 months than in the past decade stopping more than 42,200 fraudulent unemployment benefit claims since the pandemic started last March.<\/p>\n

Here is what families and their employees need to know about unemployment fraud and how to respond if they may be victims. This is important information to share with your employee.<\/p>\n

For your employee: what to do if a fraudulent unemployment claim is made<\/h2>\n

State labor agencies will send official notices about unemployment benefits \u2013 often called monetary determination letters \u2013 to workers who have filed claims.<\/p>\n

If your employee has received this type of communication but did not apply for unemployment, they should:<\/p>\n