The FBI is alerting consumers about a spike in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims filed using stolen identities.<\/p>\n
\u201cU.S. citizens from several states have been victimized by criminal actors impersonating the victims and using the victims\u2019 stolen identities to submit fraudulent unemployment insurance claims online,\u201d a recent FBI press release stated. \u201cThe criminals obtain the stolen identity using a variety of techniques, including the online purchase of stolen PII, previous data breaches, computer intrusions, cold-calling victims while 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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, according to the FBI.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
FBI advises consumers to be on the lookout for the following activities:<\/p>\n
-Receiving communications regarding unemployment insurance forms when you have not applied for unemployment benefits;<\/p>\n
-Unauthorized transactions on your bank or credit card statements related to unemployment benefits;<\/p>\n
-Any fees involved in filing or qualifying for unemployment insurance;<\/p>\n
-Unsolicited inquiries related to unemployment benefits; and<\/p>\n
-Fictitious websites and social media pages mimicking those of government agencies.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The FBI also provided tips to help individuals protect themselves:<\/p>\n
-Be wary of telephone calls and text messages, letters, websites, or emails that require you to provide your personal information or other sensitive information, especially birth dates and Social Security numbers; and be cautious with attachments and embedded links within email, especially from an unknown email sender;<\/p>\n
-Make yourself aware of methods fraudsters are using to obtain personally identifiable information and how to combat them;<\/p>\n
-Monitor your financial accounts on a regular basis and request your credit report at least once a year to look for any fraudulent activity, and if you believe you are a victim, review your credit report more frequently;<\/p>\n
-Immediately report unauthorized transactions to your financial institution or credit card provider; and<\/p>\n
-If you suspect you are a victim immediately contact the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit records, and additionally, notify the IRS by filing an Identity Theft Affidavit (IRS Form 14039) through gov<\/u><\/em> or identitytheft.gov.<\/u><\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The FBI is alerting consumers about a spike in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims filed using stolen identities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ncultheaffiliate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}