Scammers are defrauding unemployed Americans
Key Points
- Roughly 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the four weeks through April 11, shattering previous records.
- Con artists are trying to take advantage of the surge in claims by posing as individuals helping people file for unemployment and then stealing personal information.
- You don’t need to pay anyone to file or qualify for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday in a fraud alert.
Americans are filing for unemployment benefits in record
numbers, and scammers are trying to cash in.
Fraudsters are swarming to take advantage of the health and
economic crises caused by the coronavirus.
Amid the schemes is one in which scammers offer to help
individuals file for unemployment insurance benefits, the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General said Thursday
in a fraud alert.
The report comes as roughly 22 million Americans filed for
unemployment benefits in the four weeks through April 11,
according to Labor Department figures issued Thursday morning.
That nearly erases the 22.4 million jobs added to payrolls since
November 2009, when the U.S. economy began emerging from the
Great Recession.
Con artists are seizing on the pandemonium of people rushing to
file for unemployment benefits. The volume surge, which has
shattered previous records, has clogged up phone lines and
websites of unemployment offices around the country.
Fraudsters posing as a helpful resource for filing unemployment
claims typically ask unsuspecting victims for personal
information such as Social Security numbers and dates of birth,
according to Labor Department’s fraud alert.
They also ask people to provide payment or credit-card
information to allegedly assist them in filing or qualifying for
their unemployment benefits.
“You do not need to pay anyone to file or qualify for your
benefits,” according to the alert. “Victims of these scams face
potential harm.”
Fraudsters may use an individual’s personal information to
commit identity theft by filing fraudulent unemployment
insurance claims, the alert said – potentially delaying a
victim’s payment or edging them out of benefits.
The $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package enacted last
month significantly expanded unemployment benefits for jobless
Americans, by boosting weekly payments, increasing their
duration and swelling the ranks of unemployed who qualify for
payments.
Americans have lost $13.4 million to coronavirus-related fraud
since the beginning of the year, according to the Federal Trade
Commission. The true dollar figure could be much higher, since
not all consumers may have reported fraud to the agency.