The Pennsylvania State Police are investigating multiple reports of fraudulent unemployment compensation claims being reported not only locally but across the State.
With the pandemic and more people being on unemployment, a new trend, and scam has emerged where false unemployment claims are being made on behalf of Pennsylvania's employed.
The scam is simple, where someone obtains another person's personal information including social security number and files for unemployment under that person, hoping its approved and has the funds deposited via direct deposit. Once approved, the person can begin collecting the victim's unemployment benefits without even knowing its occurring.
Luckily, there are many stop gaps in place and as long as your employer has a good human resources department, they should never be successful.
This doesn't mean that the scammers won't continue to try.
The Pennsylvania State Police at Schuylkill Haven are reporting at least 5 instances were this occurred just within the last week of June and first week of July in their coverage area.
Several school districts have also reported this happening within the county. While we won't mention the districts specifically, some have reported that they have received dozens of false unemployment claims for their employees while they are off over the summer.
The Pennsylvania State Police have not reported if anyone has been charged in any of the incidents but they do say they continue to investigate.