Keystone Today

The Pennsylvania Office of Unemployment Compensation warns that the state is seeing an increase in fraudulent unemployment claims.

"Pennsylvania has experienced a surge in fraudulent unemployment claims filed by organized crime rings using stolen identities," the PA Department of Labor and Industry posted on Facebook. "Please remain vigilant to any social or unauthorized communication channels asking for personal info." 

As many states have been rolling back extra unemployment benefits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania recently made it easier for residents to access their benefits. But the change resulted in a massive spike in fraud. WHYY reports that, before the change, there were about 100 reports of fraudulent claims per week. After the change, there were more than 2,000 reports in a week and roughly 75% of them were legitimate instances of fraud.

Gov. Tom Wolf | NGA.org

The issue of unemployment claim fraud, however, is not isolated in Pennsylvania. 

USA Today reports that scammers have collected more than $36 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments from a variety of U.S. states. Pennsylvania is one of the states being targeted by foreign scammers as well.

According to 8WGAL, state officials announced that they had recaptured a whopping $800 million in fraudulent unemployment payments.

Recently, it has been uncovered, according to a Go Erie news story, that Pennsylvania has had a number of troubles with its unemployment system in the recent past. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) responded to a report that detailed how the state had overcharged 250,000 citizens a total of $14 million that it has now begun to refund.

As posted on its website, the Pennsylvania Office of Unemployment Compensation says its security vendor, "ID.me," has identified additional phishing attempts and fraud scams "leveraging social media, text messaging and email to lure unsuspecting individuals into providing personal information so that the scammers can claim their identity."