for display only
Big Blue Interactive The Corner Forum  
Back to the Corner

Archived Thread

NFT: Unemployment Fraud

Bricktop : 4/19/2021 9:39 pm
Anyone else getting bombarded by fraudulent unemployment claims from the DOL despite not being unemployed? This shit in NY is outta hand. Our neighborhood has had multiple fraudulent claims filed for residents. And we've had random cars camping out at all hours of the night presumably trying to intercept mail. I had two men approach my house Sunday morning at around 5am - my Ring App alerted me - and I identified myself to the two guys and let them know I was armed. I ended up calling the police, giving them a description, ID'ing myself as a licensed gun owner and they came by the house really quick. Not sure what - if anything - happened after that.

My employer contacted me today to let me know that someone is trying to claim unemployment insurance in my name. So I had to freeze my credit report with all three agencies. I've been getting letters from the DOL with my SSN under a different address - luckily my mail carrier knows me and she delivered the letters to me anyways. Otherwise, I'd have never known until now. I filed a complaint with the NY DOL - and of course have heard fucking nothing from that clownshow.

People are desperate and this shit is a bit scary. So I urge you - any time you might be a victim of ID fraud - freeze your credit, change your passwords, report and document it all.
Not surprised it is estimated that at least 36 billion  
pjcas18 : 4/19/2021 9:44 pm : link
dollars has been stolen by fraudulent unemployment claims (this estimate was in January) since the rules were relaxed for the pandemic.

my kids (freshmen in college) both got targeted - kids are easier targets I guess because many are less suspicious to phishing and/or less attentive to snail mail
RE: Not surprised it is estimated that at least 36 billion  
Bricktop : 4/19/2021 9:45 pm : link
In comment 15226360 pjcas18 said:
Quote:
dollars has been stolen by fraudulent unemployment claims (this estimate was in January) since the rules were relaxed for the pandemic.

my kids (freshmen in college) both got targeted - kids are easier targets I guess because many are less suspicious to phishing and/or less attentive to snail mail


My son is also a freshman in college. Did your kids get mail at their schools or email or at home?
No, but NJ had stopped paying for no fucking reason....  
chopperhatch : 4/19/2021 9:51 pm : link
TWICE. I started working again in August, but two separate occasions, the DoL (person who runs it is a friend of horse-faced Murphy) stopped paying my claim and you literally cant get through to anybody. I had to call my local Assemblyman's office and even then it took him 2 months to get a response from Labor.

Im not going to cross the BBI line, but there is a trend.
RE: No, but NJ had stopped paying for no fucking reason....  
Bricktop : 4/19/2021 9:57 pm : link
In comment 15226367 chopperhatch said:
Quote:
TWICE. I started working again in August, but two separate occasions, the DoL (person who runs it is a friend of horse-faced Murphy) stopped paying my claim and you literally cant get through to anybody. I had to call my local Assemblyman's office and even then it took him 2 months to get a response from Labor.

Im not going to cross the BBI line, but there is a trend.


Yo that's fucked up man. Sorry to hear. Too many people are hurting for this shit to be going on. These agencies need to tighten the fuck up. Somebody tried to open a $50k line of credit on my house on 4/15 I just found out.
RE: RE: Not surprised it is estimated that at least 36 billion  
pjcas18 : 4/19/2021 9:58 pm : link
In comment 15226361 Bricktop said:
Quote:
In comment 15226360 pjcas18 said:


Quote:


dollars has been stolen by fraudulent unemployment claims (this estimate was in January) since the rules were relaxed for the pandemic.

my kids (freshmen in college) both got targeted - kids are easier targets I guess because many are less suspicious to phishing and/or less attentive to snail mail



My son is also a freshman in college. Did your kids get mail at their schools or email or at home?


texts first. then mail to the house. now they're inundated with scams but are now on to them.
Yes...this is an enormous issue nationally.  
Tom in NY : 4/19/2021 11:44 pm : link
The latest Corona Virus relief package included Billions to help the states recover specifically from fraudulent claims over the last year.

My company handles HR on an outsourced basis for our clients and we have prevented over 50 fraudulent claims in the last 6 weeks. It appears that much of the fraud is coming from outside of the country.
Happened to my mother  
Vanzetti : 4/20/2021 12:15 am : link
Some woman in Texas was using my mom’s address in NY to collect


Ironic, that chopper who had a legit claim was stopped while frauds were paid in full.

I think a lot of the organized rings were run by the drug cartels in Mexico
So bad  
OC2.0 : 4/20/2021 2:35 am : link
Here in Cal convicts bilked the EED for billions. That's right, CONVICTS!
I have had 2 fraudulent claims filed in my name  
edavisiii : 4/20/2021 8:01 am : link
One in RI and one from Colorado. My whole school district got hit, it's a national problem, not just a NY thing.
It's more rampant than you can possibly imagine  
PA Aggie : 4/20/2021 8:01 am : link
The company my wife works for, Thomson Reuters, partners with smaller companies, Equifax, Pondera, etc who have massive data bases for all of our personal information, and I mean all of it. Gov't agencies then purchase the monthly usage from TR to sort people's identities, locations, etc., or pay these data companies an agreed to amount to do a massive batch search. The agencies then use the 'hits' to go after fraud offenders, or at least try to prevent it.

How different a state's agency operates and/or what they are looking for, can vary immensely from one state to another. So one data base search is not necessarily the most efficient for the next state's needs.

Some of the examples she shares with me are staggering. CA is the leader in fraud by a long shot. It used to be a low estimate of $20 billion, now they are estimating $60 billion in fraud alone. A tremendous amount of fraud originates in the Ukraine, then uses CA/Los Angeles for the address. One house in LA alone had 6100 claims. And our prison systems, as someone stated, are pretty bad too. (It seems crazy to me that the prisons would have people who would commit fraud? Coincidence I guess?) But PA alone had $20 million in checks going to prisoners. One guy was pretty daring, he used a name, probably not his real name, as Suck My Balls...he got $10,000.

The causes; hacking and fraud is big money and they are good enough to get into to almost any system. Next, gov't agencies do not have the highest level software, some of it is woefully antiquated. Last, even if a gov't agency gets a list of 'hits', people who are absolutely guilty, going after them still costs money. These people could have 20-30 addresses or phone numbers. They CAN be found, other software that she sells is scary good, it can track and find people in minutes (San Bernardino shooting several years ago came to a conclusion quickly because the State Police had some really cool stuff.) But most states are not willing to spend the money to purchase that too. Most states are just writing off the losses, and trying their best to limit future fraud.

There are a few ways that could have been used to prevent much of this. Dropping checks from a helicopter like we did was probably the easiest, but most costly. Ah,...our gov't. There is just too much money out there, ripe for the taking.
We we’re getting slammed with these cases  
bradshaw44 : 4/20/2021 8:08 am : link
Last month. We had to call DOL and send written letters to put them on alert. Of the 15 or so we got only one of them got money successfully out of our reserves.

They had almost all the real information of the employees they impersonated. We think it may have stemmed from one of the big hacks that happened in the past few years. We checked our systems and nobody got in.

The fact that it seems to be a National thing lends credence to it stemming from one of the larger nationwide hacks.
unemployment is out of control  
KDavies : 4/20/2021 8:55 am : link
the problem as I see it right now is that they aren't investigating anything, so everything skates right by. They won't deny anyone.

We never had anyone get unemployment in almost a decade of business. Right now, we have 4 former employees on unemployment, none of which should be entitled to it. Among them is someone who resigned (we have it in writing), as well as someone else who put in her two weeks, but was fired in those two weeks for calling a client a name.
RE: unemployment is out of control  
Harvest Blend : 4/20/2021 9:47 am : link
In comment 15226559 KDavies said:
Quote:
the problem as I see it right now is that they aren't investigating anything, so everything skates right by. They won't deny anyone.

We never had anyone get unemployment in almost a decade of business. Right now, we have 4 former employees on unemployment, none of which should be entitled to it. Among them is someone who resigned (we have it in writing), as well as someone else who put in her two weeks, but was fired in those two weeks for calling a client a name.


I personally know someone that scammed over $23K in unemployment. She resigned her job then nearly a year later when the pandemic hit filed for UEI and got it with the $600 kicker. She also currently works under the table.

Protect your ID boys and girls.
There are also some  
pjcas18 : 4/20/2021 9:59 am : link
loopholes vs scams.

my oldest (twins) graduated high school this past May.

Them and many of their friends lost their summer jobs (camps, day care, etc.) so they were eligible for unemployment for a job they never had plus the PUA.

they (not my kids) were sitting home collecting $850 per week at 17/18 years old.

that was perfectly legal, but IMO not what unemployment was designed to support. Even once some of them went to college they were still collecting - more than 15k in some cases.

Then, tax time hit - and they were all nervous but congress bailed them out and said the first 12.5k of unemployment was tax free.

again, all legal, and I'm not jealous like others have said, but someone is paying for this. (aka the tax payers or they will be eventually).
pjcas  
TommyWiseau : 4/20/2021 11:19 am : link
My neighbors son did exactly that. Was at home collecting unemployment for a job he never got to work (summer gig).
they are going state to state and Texas is getting crushed right now  
Eric on Li : 4/20/2021 11:24 am : link
As of last week I'd heard something like 80% of claims in TX right now are fraudulent. NY and CA both got crushed too. I believe last year NY had more fraud claims in the 8 months post-stimulus than in the previous decade combined.
This happened to me  
Gary from The East End : Admin : 4/20/2021 11:31 am : link
Got a call from HR a couple months ago asking me if I had filed for Unemployment. Obviously I hadn't, because I was still employed.

Went on the NY State website and filled out a fraud form. Then I locked down all my credit just to be on the safe side.
how do you guys lock shit down?  
djm : 4/20/2021 12:23 pm : link
life lock? Any recommendations? I am scared shitless of identity theft but haven't done a thing about it.
Go to each creditor website  
JonC : 4/20/2021 12:55 pm : link
create an account, lock your credit file(s).
I went to equifax, transunion, and experian  
Bricktop : 4/20/2021 1:09 pm : link
and put a freeze on my credit.
thanks gents  
djm : 4/20/2021 3:24 pm : link
what does freezing do other than lock it down? No harm?
I followed this guide on how to lock down your credit  
Gary from The East End : Admin : 4/20/2021 9:30 pm : link
Very helpful and saved me a lot of Googling. It's from the /r/personalfinance Wiki on Reddit
Identity Theft - What to do - ( New Window )
RE: thanks gents  
Bricktop : 4/20/2021 10:13 pm : link
In comment 15227193 djm said:
Quote:
what does freezing do other than lock it down? No harm?


My understanding is that no one can take out loans, apply for credit cards, lines of credit, etc until you unfreeze it. And the reporting agencies are alerted by any attempts to do so. You're the ONLY one who can initiate a financial transaction after you've created accounts with each agency.
thanks again  
djm : 4/21/2021 9:19 am : link
get us a cup of tea, would you, errol...
Back to the Corner