Fraudulent Claims Targeting Department of Labor Benefits Increase

Summary

The NJCCIC received incident reports indicating various Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance fraud attempts. Unemployment and disability fraud occurs when cybercriminals exploit personally identifiable information (PII) to receive labor benefits illegally. Potential targets may include those whose PII was exposed in past data breaches, previous victims of identity theft, and those who have given their PII to a scammer who asserts they can facilitate filing a claim with the NJ Department of Labor, often for a fee.

Red flags indicating potential victimization of fraudulent UI or Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance claims may include: 

• Denial or rejection of a filed claim because a claim was already received under your name.
• A determination letter indicating that an application has been received under your name; however, you did not apply for benefits.
• A current or former employer notifies you that a claim has been submitted with your PII.

Recommendations

The NJCCIC recommends users maintain awareness of current tactics used by threat actors in social engineering campaigns and understand the common red flags that accompany these threats. Additional information and resources regarding PII, identity theft, recommendations, and credit freezes can be found in the NJCCIC product, Compromised PII: Facilitating Malicious Targeting and Fraudulent Activity. Suspected unemployment insurance fraud can be reported to the NJ Department of Labor via their online form or by phone at 609-777-4304. Likewise, Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance fraud can be reported to the NJ Department of Labor via their online form or by phone at 609-292-7060. We encourage users to report cyber incidents via the NJCCIC Cyber Incident Report  Form.