December 18, 2020
Fraudulent unemployment claims
Fraudulent unemployment claims are an issue every state is facing. Over the past several months, states have seen historic increases in the number of reported fraudulent unemployment claims due to identity theft. As a result, Kanas State University employees are directly impacted.
The state of Kansas continues to battle the fraudulent unemployment claims situation. To date, the Kansas Department of Labor has stopped more than 157,000 of these fraudulent claims and the numbers continue to grow. Currently, 741 K-State employees have been affected by these fraudulent claims. Questions have been received by numerous campus offices regarding a possible data breach within the university. The Division of Information Technology has confirmed that K-State has not experienced a data breach leading to these fraudulent claims.
As a reminder, the Kansas Department of Labor will not communicate to individuals through email or text. The department will notify impacted employees by mailed correspondence to their home address. If you have received an unemployment communication and believe it is a fraudulent claim, please act immediately by reporting it at www.reportfraud.ks.gov. When you report suspected identity theft on the site, the system will generate a police report number, it will provide tips for victims to use to help mitigate the damage from the theft and the state Department of Labor will stop processing the claim for payment.
In addition, Human Capital Services may also receive a claim notice from the state Department of Labor. HCS will respond back to the department regarding the status of all claims received and whether each claim is valid or fraudulent.
Reporting an instance of identity theft to the Kansas Department of Labor is not a replacement for taking additional steps to protect your personal information. Impacted employees will need to notify their financial institutions and/or credit bureaus. For more information, please access the reportfraud.ks.gov site. Impacted individuals are encouraged to take additional steps to help protect their identities, such as credit monitoring or identity theft protection services. This will help impacted individuals proactively act when their personal information is exposed and help mitigate the risk of further financial harm.