Someone filed for unemployment using my H’s social security number. He found out when someone from HR called to let him know. With all the things you can do with a ss #, I’m surprised this happened. He froze his credit with all the reporting agencies and reported to our local police. What else should he do? Does anyone ever follow up on these types of crimes?
He probably needs to contact the IRS in case the person uses the SSN to file for a refund.
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The unemployment fraud claims are rampant in Colorado. My brother got a claim form in the mail with a debit card (with his nickname, not his SSN name). It had very authentic looking state seals and labor department letterhead and 2-3 pages of info. Jokes on them - my brother is not employed!
A friend also reported that it happened to him through his employer too, and he was notified by HR.
I’m not sure how the scam works and figure they must have duplicate debit cards and pull the funds off before the person even knows they are unemployed. I’m not sure they have the SSN and hope the employer will provide those.
Do freeze your credit. Do file your tax returns ASAP.
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Yes, the same thing happened to my husband. You need to contact the IRS and ask them for a PIN that you will use to file taxes. You’ll get a new PIN every year. Our neighbors, two doctors, had a horrible experience when someone filed for a refund in their name. It was VERY hard to resolve. The wife told me it was a nightmare for over a year.
I should say that we applied for a PIN back in September and haven’t received one yet. Our CPA said to just hold on and see if they send one. I’m hoping nobody files for a refund in the meantime. I guess I should call the IRS Monday, ugh.
A LOT LOT LOT of people had this happen to them. Many thousands. 
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We had someone file taxes with my husbands SSN several years ago. It is still causing us trouble. Now I have had someone file for unemployment with my SSN. I won’t go into everything this has made us go through but we have completely given up on filing taxes electronically. We just mail it in like in the old days. The system never accepts our taxes, even with the code. I wish there was someway to start over since our numbers are obviously out there. Fortunately our credit is still good.
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Right after Christmas, I got a letter from my State Department of Labor saying that my application for unemployment insurance payments had been denied. I never applied for unemployment and have been gainfully employed for the past 25 years. It looked to be a crude attempt as the fraudulent application did not list my employer or my salary (which is why it was denied). I filled out a fraud report on the DOL website. I also placed a fraud alert with the credit agencies. This type of fraud is definitely rampant.
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Just a question: In addition to reporting this to the IRS, should one also contact the Social Security Administration??
ETA: Any idea how these people got the SSN?
It happened to several other people at H’s company. I would hope they are looking into it.
Someone stole the EIN for my company. It’s a corporation and has to appear on some government/legal forms from time to tome.
No harm done. But I was glad I file very early. I was shocked someone had filed before me and changed the address. I’m told fraudsters do this so they can apply for loans and credit under the company name and check the address to its own. They can often borrow a hefty sum too.
I no longer send this info around electronically. It’s often easily obtained online via Dun n Bradsteet and others though.
Yikes.
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I don’t know how they get so many SNNs. Just the state of Maine had many thousands of fraudulent applications, and our population is only 1.3 million.
My H got a letter saying he did not qualify for unemployment benefits that he had filed for in our state (H is not employed in the state where we live). I reported fraudulent filing to our state.
My b-i-l was told he had “already filed” when he was laid off last summer and qualified for benefits.
I still do taxes on paper.
A few years back someone got H’s info and applied for several credit cards and loans in his name. Identity theft nightmare. Fortunately caught early. Evil people out there.
Through my work I have found some HR people send spreadsheets with employee information to their personal email accounts. Their company’s cyber security should not allow PII (personal identifiable information) or PHI(personal health information) to be sent without encryption, but the protocol is not always followed. Some company’s HR also send employee’s information to their benefit vendors via spreadsheets instead of through secured channels.
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People tend to give out their SSNs to sources who don’t need them. One of the biggest sources for tax fraud in Florida was dentist offices. The forms at the dentist office ask for SSN and people fill it in. Then employees at the dental offices provide that info to rings of criminals who file for tax returns under the SSN, or the dentist purges the files and the info is taken from dumpsters.
My daughter played hockey for years and the forms they used for registration asked for the SSN - of 10 year olds! Why? Because some teams traveled to Canada in the 70’s and 80’s when all they needed was a SSN so the teams just made rosters with the SSN included. Hmm, my daughter wasn’t even born until 1996, she was never good enough to travel to Canada, AND since 2000 a passport has been needed! But I bet half the team filled in that spot on the registration form.
Just don’t provide the info. I have my kids so trained not to give out the info that they didn’t want to provide it to the college FA offices. Nope, they had to if they wanted $$, but they didn’t have to give it to SAT, ACT, the high school, the dentist, doctor, or anyone else without asking why it was needed.
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Recently, I needed to email paperwork so I could sign checks for a non-profit organization. The form asked for my SSN. I left it blank and said if they really needed it, they could call me. So they did.
Good idea to remind my kids (and husband!) of this.
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But I’d ask why they needed it (to run a credit check? to send you a 1099?) and I’d ask how they store the information.
When my kids were in grade school, the school office was broken into. It appeared to be small time thieves as they took rolls of stamps and other ‘money’ type things, but all the records of the kids were there - names, some SSN, addresses, birth certificates. They realized the big possibility of fraud.
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This is an old thread…but you might want to read it.
This is often the legacy of dental and other health care insurance using SSN as the insurance identifier.
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It has been illegal to use the SSN as the insurance ID number for many years. Also can’t be used as the student’s ID number. The only reason the care provider can ask for the number is to do collections if a debt isn’t paid.
I was surprised that several of the registrations I completed to get on a covid waitlist asked for the SSN; it wasn’t a required field, but it asked. Just one more place for your SSN to get out there in the world.
Apparently, there are still DoD TriCare cards with SSN as the ID number on them (that they are trying to get people to replace):
https://tricare.mil/ssn
But the reason I wrote “legacy” is that if you used a dental or other health care provider in the past* when SSN was the usual insurance ID number, your SSN is probably still there somewhere. SSN also appears to be used internally by insurance companies, so it is sometimes used unofficially by providers as a backup ID number when talking to insurance companies.
*Most people posting in this section of the forums were alive in the 1990s or earlier when SSN was the usual insurance ID number.