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Across the nation there has been a dramatic increase of fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic. In a few instances we have been notified by the Department of Labor of the state involved that unemployment claims have been filed using the name and Social Security Number of our members. In those cases, we have directly corresponded with the individual member involved to confirm that no unemployment claim was filed by them and provided a response to the appropriate state DOL that it is a fraudulent claim. We have also been notified by a few of our members that their employers have contacted them to let them know that their name and SSN has been used to file fraudulent unemployment claims.
To this point we have been assured, by all employers where we have collective bargaining agreements, there has been no evidence of any data breach with regard to internal employment records.
If you are contacted by the employer or union that an unemployment claim was filed using your name and SSN and you did not file the claim, it is recommended that you do the following:
1. Report the identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission
2. File a local police report
3. Take precautionary measures to protect your credit either through credit monitoring or freezing credit notifying all three major credit bureaus that your identity has been stolen
a. Equifax – 800-349-9960
b. Experian – 888-397-3742
c. TransUnion – 888-909-8872
4. Contact the appropriate state unemployment office to report the fraudulent claim. In NYS call – 888-598-2077
5. Consider utilizing the services of identify protection company
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