Westchester Insider: Westchester County Board of Legislators Chairman Ben Boykin 5th District: Watch Out for Unemployment Insurance Fraud.

 

Watch Out for Unemployment Insurance Fraud.

The United States Secret Service has received reports that a Nigerian fraud ring has been filing unemployment claims in different states using Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information.

This ring is being aggressively pursued by both the FBI and Secret Service. It is believed that they have stolen about $665 million from unemployment agencies.

You should be on the look out for this fraudulent activity in your name.

According to the New York State Department of Labor, if someone files an unemployment claim, they probably also have the person’s Social Security number.  The DOL recommends that employees should:

• Contact New York state division of labor and fill out a report: https://www.labor.ny.gov/agencyinfo/uifraud.shtm
• Contact your financial institutions and update them. (They, of course, advise that you change all of your passwords and passcodes.)
• Get a credit report. (Free with no damage to your credit at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action or call 877-322-8228)
• Notify the three major credit bureaus and have a fraud alert posted.

In addition, you must report this to the Attorney General in New York State.  A report form is on the Attorney General's website at https://formsnym.ag.ny.gov/OAGOnlineSubmissionForm/faces/OAGCFCHome or you can call 1-800-771-7755.