New investigative reporting is revealing the scope of fraud that’s happening involving unemployment benefits.
Scammers have been using social security numbers of victims to obtain benefits illegally in New York.
Now though, a new investigative story by News10NBC shows that in many cases– it’s happening in other states, too.
Donald Confarotta, a Perinton resident, received a debit card in the mail last week. He said that after calling the number on the back- he was told that it was from the State of Ohio’s unemployment office. “I’ve never worked in Ohio,” he said.
The same thing almost happened to a Webster resident, who received a letter stating that the Kentucky Department of Labor received ‘his’ unemployment claim. He filed nothing with them and hadn’t worked in the state.
News10NBC has been exposing how prevalent unemployment ID theft is here in New York and how the NYSDOL isn’t following some of the normal checks and balances to prevent fraud. The state won’t say how much it has paid in claims that have later been flagged as fraudulent but it’s likely billions.
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