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  1. Company received unemployment claim in my name (with slight mispelling of my first name)
  2. I still work for the company.
  3. I have no filed anything. The paperwork has my SSN.

What are my next steps and concerns here? Goals are to cancel this claim, but also to try to figure out if I should have any identity theft concerns.

I am in OH, this is the address info on the letter:

OH Dept. of Job & Family Services
Office of Unemployment Insurance Operations
ODJFS Office:
Cleveland Adjudication Center
PO Box 182212
Columbus, OH 43218
Phone: 866-576-0006
ClaimantID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Form ID Number:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Result:

  • Called OH Unemployment fraud line, 4 calls with 50+ minute holds, "spilled-over" to claims department from fraud dept, reps said nothing they could do, and would "forward me" to fraud, with same result
  • Got fraud dept on 4th try, gave them all my info, they told me pmt did not go out and they would block pmt and mark the account for investigation
  • Refused to provide me with a confirmation number, case number, the rep's last name, or any sort of confirmation whatsoever
  • Will call again on Friday to see if the account is at least marked as under investigation
  • Asked if I can register online so I can "secure" my SSN - told no, no action can be taken unless I apply for unemployment again. Someone registered in my name with another email account.
JohnTest
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1 Answers1

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Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of stolen identities were used to file billions of dollars in unemployment claims. One affected person was my spouse. I just read last week that $36 billion were paid out before the situation was discovered. The social security numbers were presumably gathered in previous phishing attacks and data breaches (especially the Equifax breach). It's possible since there was a recent law passed to pay $300 extra, the fraudsters are making another run at it.

You should immediately start taking the following steps

  • Hopefully your employer has already denied/contested the claim
  • Set up your own account with your state unemployment agency to claim your social security number
  • Tell your state unemployment agency that the claim was fraudulent. There should be a phone number to call or a form to send in.
  • Freeze your credit reports
  • If you find that your identity was stolen, you will want to file a police report
  • You may want to send the IRS the form to indicate you were a victim of identity theft

I got some of these steps from following this blog post: https://www.plantingourpennies.com/apparently-im-unemployed-who-knew/

stannius
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