More than 11,000 data breaches, causing exposure of more than 1.6 billion personal records over a span of about 15 years, are at the core of the Unemployment Compensation (UC) fraud uptick, according to a press release from the state Department of Labor and Industry.
“It’s frustrating that thousands of data breaches that occurred outside of (Labor and Industry) – and outside the control of consumers who often had no choice but to give companies their personal data – are now resulting in widespread unemployment fraud attempts,” Department of Labor and Industry secretary Jennifer Berrier said at a press conference Wednesday in Harrisburg.
The press release said the department uses identity verification service ID.me to ensure the security of all new UC applicants, and also works with the National Unemployment Insurance Fraud Task Force, FBI, Homeland Security, the state’s treasury and attorney general’s offices “to identify and block new fraud methods and stop fraud attempts.”
As to why fraudsters have chosen its UC system as a way to acquire fraudulent benefits payments, Berrier said “Pennsylvania has reached a milestone by implementing its modernized UC system. We’re the second-largest state to do this, so this gained national attention and they were looking for an opportunity to see what they could get away with on our new system.” Berrier added that the updates to that system “that already filtered out a lot of those fraud attempts.”
Clarion state police public information officer Bruce Morris said the increase in victims reporting fraudulent UC claims made on them is partly because, in many cases, they’re receiving the money the fraudsters applied for in their names.
Williams has urged Venango County employers to reach out to employees with fraudulent or potentially fraudulent UC claims on them, to inform them that they are involved. For the employees, Williams said, it’s integral to report fraudulent claims filed on them to the police in the jurisdiction where they live. Employers, too, can file a police report, said Morris.
