WorkSource/Employment Security Department COVID-19 Information Updates
WorkSource/Employment Security Department COVID-19 Information Updates
In this update:
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Fraud Q&A
https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/unemployment-benefits-fraud
Q. What is identity theft?
Identity theft is a crime in which an imposter obtains key pieces of personally identifiable information, such as Social Security or driver's license numbers. Criminals use this information to impersonate someone else, usually for financial gain.
Q. What is unemployment imposter fraud?
When someone illegally files an unemployment claim using another person’s personal and employment information.
Q. How do I know if I’m a victim of fraud?
Many people find out when they receive a letter they were not expecting from the Employment Security Department. Many also find out when Employment Security notifies an employer that a current employee has applied for unemployment benefits. The employer then notifies the employee.
Q. What should I do if I suspect I’m a victim of unemployment imposter fraud?
If you have reason to believe someone has applied for unemployment benefits using your information, report it immediately to the Employment Security Department. Select the Fraud reporting form button above to securely send us your information.
After reporting the fraud to ESD, follow the instructions under What should I do if I’m a victim of identity theft? below.
Q. What should employers do for their employees who experience imposter fraud?
Employers should:
- Immediately notify their employees about the fraudulent claim. Then either:
- Instruct employees to securely report the fraud to the Employment Security Department using the Fraud reporting form linked above.
- Or securely report fraud on behalf of their employees by using the Benefit Fraud Employer Reporting Template linked above. The Benefit Fraud Employer Reporting Template may be useful for providing information about multiple employees and to promptly stop payments on the claims.
- Instruct employees to follow directions below under What should I do if I’m a victim of identity theft?
- Go to the Attorney General’s Recovering from identity theft or fraud web page and follow the instructions.
- File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) online at identitytheft.gov or call 877-ID-THEFT. In addition, the FTC recommends that you:
- File a police report. Get a copy of the report to submit to your creditors and others that may require proof of the crime.
- Place a fraud alert on your credit reports and review your credit reports periodically to ensure no new fraudulent activity has occurred.
- Close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently.
- Request your free credit reports via annualcreditreport.com and review them for other fraudulent activities.
No. You will not need to pay back the money. Your employer won’t have to repay it either.
Q. If someone steals my identity and uses my information to apply for unemployment benefits, can I still apply for benefits if I need to?
Yes. We’ll be able to distinguish your legitimate claim from a fraudulent one.
Q. How does the Employment Security Department detect fraud?
We have four main ways of detecting fraud:
- Our system can spot and flag irregularities.
- We cross match our data with multiple other sources, including a new national fraud detection system.
- The victim reports fraud.
- The victim’s employer reports it.
ESD is:
- Working with other states and the federal government to cross match data to detect fraud.
- Has hired additional fraud investigators and continues to use standard and creative information security practices.
- Has delayed all payments to all claimants by 48 to 72 hours to allow time to root out fraudulent claims.
- Be aware of false websites. Use only ESD’s official website: ESD.WA.GOV.
- Applying for unemployment benefits is free. ESD will never ask for a payment to process your claim.
- Follow the tips on the Attorney General’s website. Tips include:
- Place a fraud alert or security freeze on your credit reports.
- Monitor your financial accounts, billing statements and credit reports for suspicious activity. - Be wary of solicitors asking for your personal information online or by phone. ESD will ask you for information through official correspondence and through your ESD eServices account. If we call you, you can ask the agents to identify themselves.
- Some have suggested that people create an eServices account — even if they don’t need one — to prevent someone else from creating an account with their name. You can do that, but we don’t know if it will help prevent fraud. So, we neither recommend nor discourage it.
No and perhaps. Unemployment taxes have two parts: One is the experience rated tax employers pay based on how many of their former employees have received unemployment benefits. The other tax is a pool all employers pay into to cover other costs of benefits and those instances when no specific employer pays for benefits. That’s called the socialized portion.
When employees are victims of fraud, their employers will not see an increase in their experience rating. However, we don’t know yet if the socialized portion of unemployment taxes will go up as a result of fraud and other factors. It could.
Q. How many cases of fraud are you currently seeing and how much money do these claims represent?
We started seeing an uptick in fraudulent claims in late April to early May 2020. At this point, we have tens of thousands of individuals whose stolen information has been used to file fraudulent claims and we believe that this translates into hundreds of millions of dollars. We’re working with federal and state law enforcement agencies, banks, the U.S. Department of Labor and the Secret Service to recover as much as we can.
Kristi O'Neill
KROneill@esd.wa.gov
509 505 7519