State officials and Massachusetts employers continue to deal with a surge of fraudulent unemployment insurance claims generated as part of a national scheme using stolen personal information to attempt to access jobless benefits.

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Criminal enterprises with access to stolen personal information from prior national data breaches have been taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic by attempting to file large numbers of unemployment benefit claims through the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) system.

DUA revealed in July that 58,000 fraudulent claims had been detected, preventing the loss of $158 million. At the time, the Department of Labor said that it was working with the state and federal law enforcement to investigate the fraud and hired a private accounting firm to perform a forensic audit.

A recent investigation by Boston News 25 found evidence that fake unemployment claims are on the rise once again as scammers appear to be targeting public employees. The station reviewed police logs in surrounding towns and found reports of unemployment fraud in 23 communities in the greater Boston area.

“I think there is a second wave,” Dan Lohrmann, a cybersecurity expert, told Boston News 25. “Certainly, at the end of September and early October, we seem to be getting worse in some states.”

AIM has also continued to receive reports from member companies throughout the fall about fraudulent unemployment claims. Companies report in some cases that employees have been unaware that a fraudulent claim has been filed in their names and are thus unable to bring the scam to the attention of their employers.

“Companies need to review all unemployment claims carefully because failure to respond in a timely manner means the employer loses the right to challenge the claim,” said Vasundhra Sangar, Associate Vice President of Government Affairs at AIM.

Sangar suggests that employees and employers work together to address the scam by reviewing a set of online identity fraud tools developed by DUA.

Meanwhile, state officials are providing guidance to employers on how each of the following situations where there is a questionable claim should be handled.

If an employer has received a “Confirmation of Employment” letter:

• The most effective and efficient way is to complete the form online.
• When filling out the form (online or in paper) please fill in the form as intended and do not write across the form, do not write notes outside of the specific questions, checkboxes, or other data entry areas.
• If the person still works for you, please select “Still Employed-Part Time.” You make this selection even if the person is a full-time employee.
• If the person never worked for you, please select “The claimant did not work for me during the time period stated.”
• The employer should encourage the employee to file a fraud report and follow the guidance at: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud.

If an employer has received a “Lack of Work” letter for an employee who either has never worked for your company or is employed by your company without any break in service for the past year:

• The most effective and efficient way is to complete the form online.
• When filling out the form (online or in paper) please fill in the form as intended and do not write across the form, do not write notes outside of the specific questions, checkboxes, or other data entry areas.
• If the person still works for you, please select “Still Employed-Part Time.” Make this selection even if the person is a full-time employee.
• If the person never worked for you, please select “The claimant did not work for me during the time period stated.”
• The employer should encourage the employee to file a fraud report and follow the guidance at: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud. v

If the employer or employee is responding to a “Fact Finding Letter”

• Complete the form as provided. Do not write across the form, simply fill in the form as requested.
• Employers should inform employees who had a claim filed without their permission to go to: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud to report the fraudulent claim and find information and advice on other things they should do to protect their identity.

If an employer has received a “Monetary Determination” with which they disagree:

The employer should encourage the employee to file a fraud report and follow the guidance at: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud.

If an employer is protesting a claim a result of a “Benefit Charge Statement” they are in disagreement with:

• Protests can only be filed online and not by any other mechanisms.
• On the online form, enter a comment saying “Fraudulent Claim” and then provide information why you believe the claim was fraudulent (e.g. The claimant still works for our company and when we spoke to the claimant they said they never filed a claim).
• In a case where both the employer and the employee acknowledged that they claim was not filed by the employee, the employer should fill in the protest form in using their UI Online account and the employee should be directed to file a fraud report and follow the guidance at: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud.