Date: April 29, 2021
Media Contact: James Bernsen
Phone: 512-463-8556
Efforts include notification, internal investigation
Austin – The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) takes a variety of steps to identify and stop identity theft fraud, one of the fastest-growing Internet crimes in the country. These efforts have allowed TWC to prevent payments to over 509,000 suspicious claimants, frequently before any benefits are paid out.
Identities are being stolen at record rates, some in breaches of health insurance companies, hotels and in one of the largest cases, a consumer credit reporting agency. The Insurance Information Institute (III) reported that the number of identity theft complaints in America doubled in 2020. A growing cybercrime community on the Dark Web traffics in these stolen identities, passing them from hackers to fraudsters seeking to monetize your information.
TWC’s unemployment insurance (UI) division’s first goal is to pay benefits to recipients as soon as possible, but to implement and maintain rigorous measures to identify and prevent fraud. When a claim is submitted for unemployment benefits, the first line of defense are letters sent out to both the employer and the claimant involved to confirm the application. In most cases of fraudulent applications, either of these will recognize the fraud and inform TWC. This is the first line of defense. TWC also has security protocols in place within the unemployment insurance system that look for red flags on accounts and check identities to ensure eligibility.
From March 2020 to April 2021, TWC received applications from 4.48 million total claimants seeking UI benefits. During that time, 611,000 claimants were tagged as suspicious, with the majority being blocked before any benefits were paid out. TWC has continued to hire new investigators and improve its fraud-blocking efforts. In the last month, 94 percent of suspicious claims have been blocked before any benefits were paid.
All Texans should take steps to secure their identity online by practicing Internet security best practices. Treat your TWC account and all accounts like you would your bank account. The Texas Workforce Commission will investigate every unemployment benefit claim to confirm identity and to lock accounts that are fraudulent.
If you think you have been the victim of identity theft report it at the TWC fraud and identity theft portal here.
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The Texas Workforce Commission is a state agency dedicated to helping Texas employers, workers and communities prosper economically. For details on TWC and the services it offers in coordination with its network of local workforce development boards, call 512-463-8942 or visit www.texasworkforce.org. To receive notifications about TWC programs and services subscribe to our email updates.
