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Thread: Identity Theft/Unemployment Scam
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11-21-2020, 04:23 PM #1
Identity Theft/Unemployment Scam
Just got an email that someone applied for unemployment benefits in my name. D'OH
After doing some digging, it apparently is a big problem right now. Over 58,000 cases in MA alone (of unemployment fraud). Targeting public/government sector employees allegedly. Pretty unsettling to know some asshole has my personal info including my soc security number..
Anybody been a victim of identity theft, or unemployment fraud? What happened? Did you lose any money or anything? How'd you straighten it out?
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11-21-2020, 06:02 PM #2
I was a victim of identity fraud about a decade ago. Not unemployment fraud like you, just basic SSN stealing...
File a police report immediately
Put all three credit authorities on notice immediately
The credit authorities will flag your SSN to protect you. Basically if anyone runs a credit check for anything: bank, CC, cable company, home purchase, job app, it will come up as flagged and you will have to show an ID in person to continue the process. Not a bad deal with the a job app or home purchase. But a pain in the ass if you switching cable companies or getting a new CC. The flag will last like 5 years.
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11-21-2020, 06:06 PM #3man of ice
- Join Date
- Jun 2020
- Location
- in a freezer in Italy
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- 7,192
Yeah call and say you want to freeze or lock your report. Here's the numbers: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/article...eze-faqs#place
That site has a lot if info if you're interested but the main thing is lock it down.
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11-21-2020, 06:45 PM #4
My wife got what appeared to be a legit email from a financial planner she knew(not our financial planner). Turns out the guy got hacked, the email was a fake which in turn hacked my wifes email. We owed the IRS some coin that year. Anyway they hacked her email, set up a dummy mailbox. Posed as my wife, sent emails out to our bank, accountant, and advisor. Managed to reroute $50k that was headed to the IRS to themselves. It would have been real bad except that the bank has a rule that anything over $10k they make a phone call before they hit the button. You can imagine how insane it was to get a call, telling us they are sorry to bother us on vacation (we weren't on vacation) but needed our final okay to send the cash. WTF are you talking about. The scary part was they read enough of my wife's emails to talk like her and dupe all these people. The bank said this stuff happens and if it went through that they would probably get away with it because $50k isn't enough for the authorities to really go after.
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11-21-2020, 07:00 PM #5
mrs tgapp is a senior fraud investigator with one of those big, evil banks (they treat her amazingly well)
her workload has gone thru the roof during the pandemic. desperation seems to create both predators and victims with equal measure.
her advice? 2fa on everything, and it's always too good to be true.
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11-21-2020, 07:06 PM #6
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11-21-2020, 07:10 PM #7
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11-21-2020, 07:16 PM #8
I'm not sure if it's worth it or not but it at least is super easy to lock it. I'd locked mine 2-3 years ago and had completely forgotten I'd done so. When we refinanced this summer I got a call from our lender asking me to unlock. It probably took me about 10 minutes to do so and the refi could proceed as normal. Once that was done I locked it all back up. No idea if that'll protect against UE theft but at least it makes me feel better
tl:dr: It doesn't take long so probably worth it?
TLR
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11-22-2020, 06:29 AM #9Banned
- Join Date
- May 2007
- Location
- Sandy, Utah
- Posts
- 14,410
Mine are locked at all times unless applying for credit. All 3 major sites offer easy, web based locks. They can be turned on and off at will for borrowing purposes. It's a slight hassle, but pretty good protection.
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11-22-2020, 11:54 AM #10
Make sure you know the difference between a lock and a freeze. A lock is easier to undo. A freeze is covered by federal law and absolves the consumer of any financial liability if the freeze is broken. For people like my kid who plays the credit card game like playing the stock market to get bonus miles and stuff like that a lock is a better idea. For someone like me who hopefully will rarely be applying for credit, trying to rent an apt, etc a freeze makes more sense. Per consumer reports
https://www.consumerreports.org/cred...a-credit-lock/
Of course neither of these will prevent someone from filing for unemployment in your name, collecting your tax refund, etc. if they have your SSN.
There needs to be a way to freeze your ssn because once it's out there it's out there for good.
Medicare number used to be your ssn plus a letter so that any time you had to present it to get medical care it could be stolen. They changed that a year or two ago.
If you looked up a patient by medical record number at Kaiser--something any clerk, doc, etc could do--you saw their SSN. That was fixed a while back.
Way back in the day the police used to advise engraving your SSN on valuables so they could be traced if they were stolen and recovered. I have a 64 strat with my ssn engraved in two places. But that guitar will be buried with me so no worries
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11-22-2020, 12:19 PM #11
Girlfriend had someone file UE in her name while she was working at the company...and she is a high up exec. Pretty bold and hard to get away with that. Told HR and the state UE agency. HR denied the claim...but as your typical government agency goes....they said they would pay it out anyways.
She also did a full freeze on her credit to be safe. Unknown what ever happened to the case...but fraud exists because...our government doesn't care. Its not their money.
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11-22-2020, 12:58 PM #12
I froze my credit years ago, after the Experian breach so no problems there. I already have a mortgage, truck, bike, boat, and several credit cards, so shouldn't need to apply for credit very much more in my lifetime. I also (just) put a fraud alert on my account with the three credit bureaus, although that shouldn't matter with the freeze on. I also just enrolled in an Identity Defender program that monitors the dark web for your info, bank accounts, soc security number, etc. So I'm feeling a *little* more secure.
I went to the PD to file a report and the guy handed me his card and said to do what the unemployment office website says first and then email him. He said "we're getting a lot of this lately" and did not seem to think it was a big problem nor did he want to be bothered with it.
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11-22-2020, 01:04 PM #13
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11-22-2020, 01:14 PM #14
Had someone file a fake tax return on us several years ago. Joke was on a them, we always owe taxes due to K-1 income. So IRS flagged it immediately. Now we get a pin from the IRS each year that lets them know our return is legit.
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11-22-2020, 03:40 PM #15
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