Plymouth Public Safety Informs About Rise In Unemployment Fraud

Press release from the City of Plymouth:

April 20, 2021

The Plymouth Public Safety Department has noted an increase in crimes involving unemployment fraud and encourages residents to be vigilant and report fraudulent activity.

Many of these cases involve scammers who obtain and use residents’ information to file for fraudulent unemployment benefits.

How to Identify Unemployment Fraud

Residents should note that, if someone files for an unemployment insurance account in their name, their employer will receive a letter in the mail. If a fraudulent account is made using a resident’s address, a letter will be mailed to that home.

If either of those letters are received, residents can report fraud at the Minnesota Unemployment Insurance Program website, mn.gov/uimn/fraud-report.

The state will review the account and take steps to ensure that an imposter can no longer access it or receive unemployment benefits.

Steps for Victims of Unemployment Fraud

For someone to commit this fraud, it means that they have stolen the identity prior to applying for unemployment, so victims should take additional steps to protect themselves. Visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website on identity theft for a list of next steps, identitytheft.gov/steps.

Victims of this crime should:

• File a police report.
• File a fraud alert with one of the major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax or TransUnion).
• Enroll in a credit monitoring or identity protection service. Some banks/financial institutions may offer free credit monitoring tools, such as a free credit report.
• Change email, banking and other personal account passwords.

This press release was produced by the City of Plymouth. The views expressed here are the author’s own.