Will County Sheriff Warns Of Pandemic Unemployment Scam

WILL COUNTY, IL — A new scam in Illinois is using already stolen identities to take advantage of unemployment benefits provided through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, the Will County Sheriff's Office warned in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the sheriff's office told Patch more than 35 residents in the county have reported receiving fraudulent prepaid debit cards for unemployment benefits for which they did not apply.

If a resident can determine if he or she was a victim of the scam if he or she receives an unexpected piece of mail containing a prepaid debit card for unemployment insurance payments from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The attached mailer includes instructions on how to activate the card.

Residents who receive the card but did not sign up for unemployment insurance should not activate the card, the sheriff's office said. Instead, they should file a police report through their department's non-emergency phone line or online at the Will County Sheriff website.

The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) warns that anyone who received a card in the mail but did not sign up for unemployment insurance has most likely had their information stolen.

Once the resident has filed a police report, he or she is urged to call the IDES at 800-814-0513. When prompted, the resident should press one for "claimants," then five to report identity theft. Fraud claims can also be filed online through the IDES website.

Victims of identity theft should also check their credit reports for suspicious activity.

In a release, IDES said fraudsters are taking advantage of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which lets more people apply for unemployment and circumvents a system of checks that helps prevent fraud.

The release states the pandemic assistance program bypasses the applicant's employer or former employer, who can protest a claim if it appears to be fraudulent.

The IDES said the ongoing unemployment scam is not connected to a PUA issue that occurred in May that allowed applicants to access personal information about other applicants. Further, the department said, a year of free credit monitoring was given to any applicant who was affected by that issue.

It's believed that victims of the ongoing scam had their personal identifying information exposed in an earlier data breach, such as the Equifax breach, and are just now seeing the impact of the identity theft, the release stated.

Frauds involving Pandemic Unemployment Assistance programs are investigated by IDES and local and federal authorities.