All employers should be aware of a new fraudulent unemployment benefit scheme. The Texas Workforce Commission (“TWC”) is actively working to address a scam involving fraudulent applications for unemployment benefits. Generally, the “claimants” who appear to be seeking benefits are innocent victims of identity theft. A typical attack involves a third party improperly obtaining a password or routing number through a hacking or phishing attack.
You can read more about the TWC’s action to prevent this scam here.
To avoid this scam and protect yourself or your company from being at risk, we suggest taking the following actions:
- Create a centralized system for reviewing all unemployment claims and screening for potential fraud, and assign it to an individual or a department for monitoring.
- Train, or otherwise inform, all employees on the necessity for informational security to safeguard personal information which may be subject to a breach by a third party leading to identity theft. Such information includes, e.g., social security numbers, passwords, and routing numbers.
- Submit any known or suspected cases of unemployment fraud to the TWC via the fraud reporting portal on their homepage. A link to the portal can be found here.
We agree with the TWC’s executive director that “all fraud is a betrayal of the taxpayers and a shameless exploitation of the suffering of others for the fraudster’s personal gain.” Make sure you and your company are protected against these attacks by taking these preventive measures.
This article is posted for informational purposes only, is not intended as legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Links to external resources are provided as a convenience only; external information may change, become outdated or be removed.