Seeing ‘strong suspicion’ of fraud, California investigates unemployment mailings
Citing “a strong suspicion of recent fraud,” the state’s Employment Development Department is actively investigating reports of suspicious mailings regarding unemployment benefits that people all over the state have received.
The agency noted that between January and June, 60% of notices requiring additional documents were responded to by legitimate claimants.
But in July, the response rate plunged to 15% and in August, 9%. That indicated “a strong suspicion of recent fraud that will go unpaid since the EDD will not receive the necessary documents on these claims to prove identity,” the agency said in a news release.
“The EDD’s investigation team is aware that people are receiving multiple pieces of EDD mail while asserting they have not filed an unemployment claim,” it said.
EDD’s investigators are working with local, state and federal partners “in exposing fraudulent schemes at the core of these multiple claims, developing methods to stop and prevent such claims from being paid, and prosecuting the unscrupulous offenders to the fullest extent of the law,” the agency explained.
Clearly, EDD found, “Fraud attempts have increased during the pandemic.”
It also issued this warning: “Californians should be aware to not provide the multiple mail items they may have received to people who may show up at their door claiming to be collecting materials for EDD. EDD representatives will not come to your home.”
The EDD has information posted on its website encouraging people who do receive such mail or see other suspicious activity to report it to EDD right away. It also has information about how to return the multiple mail items to the EDD.
People throughout the state have reported receiving a deluge of mailings at their homes addressed to other people.
At a news conference earlier this week, David Robertson of Clovis described how his unemployed son’s debit card was improperly used by someone else for $14,876. Amy Brooks of Fresno told reporters she had received 22 letters addressed to five different people in the last several days.
Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, who introduced Robertson and Brooks at that news conference, was advised by EDD Thursday that “As for instructions you can share with constituents who are receiving these types of mailings, please have them mail any documents they believe are evidence of fraud” to an address the agency provided to him.
“If they are unable to mail the documents to the above address, they may also write “return to sender” on the mail and place it in an outgoing mailbox,” EDD added.
Patterson was appalled at EDD’s suggestion.
“Scammers are on the hunt for these envelopes because they know they contain Social Security numbers and debit cards loaded with cash. The EDD’s suggestion that people put these back in their mailbox is preposterous and could quite possibly put people in danger,” he told The Bee.
EDD offered some encouraging news: In many cases, the multiple mail items are notices that require additional documents to verify one’s identity before the claim can be processed and paid.
A claim goes through this process when information provided by someone seeking benefits does not match other information, such as records from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Social Security administration. EDD says that the process in many cases is working to detect fraud.
The problems California residents have found with possible fraud are not unique to the state.
The FBI in July reported a “spike in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims complaints related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic involving the use of stolen personally identifiable information.”
It said people from “several states have been victimized by criminal actors impersonating the victims and using the victims’ stolen identities to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims online.”
They use several different ways of stealing identities, including “the online purchase of stolen PII (personal identifiable information), previous data breaches, computer intrusions, cold-calling victims while using impersonation scams, email phishing schemes, physical theft of data from individuals or third parties, and from public websites and social media accounts, among other methods.
“Criminal actors will use third parties or persuade individuals who are victims of other scams or frauds to transfer fraudulent funds to accounts controlled by criminals,” the FBI said..
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Seeing ‘strong suspicion’ of fraud, California investigates unemployment mailings."
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