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UNotes

Information about Unemployment Impostor Claims

July 28, 2022
Submitted By: Gregory Freidline

Law enforcement, specifically the FBI and Secret Service, along with employers across the country are receiving claims for individuals who are still employed and did not file a UI claim. These are known as “impostor claims.

These fraud rings take advantage of the fluctuations in unemployment activity. Essentially, they file huge numbers of claims hoping that some will stick.

Impostor claims differ from normal unemployment fraud, which is when a person claims benefits for themselves while not being eligible for those benefits. This is because the impostor claims are made by nefarious third parties. These are often organized groups that use social engineering to get people to unknowingly divulge their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). This could be done through commonly seen scams such as phishing for passwords. Once they have an email password, the bad actors will look for files with things like your SSN or DOB. Once they have enough PII they will attempt to get an unemployment claim paid to an account that they can quickly empty.

If you think you are the victim of an UI Impostor Claim, here are some steps you can take to protect yourself.

  1. Contact the Department of Labor to challenge the unemployment claim and report that it was fraudulent.
  2. Consider submitting a fraud report to the FBI at https://www.ic3.gov. There are additional resources for identity theft are available from the FTC at https://www.identitytheft.gov/.
  3. Finally, check all three credit agencies for free at https://www.annualcreditreport.com. Consider either to put a fraud alert or credit freeze in place to prevent identify theft by contacting the three major credit agencies at: