In 10 months, up to $687 million paid to fraudulent unemployment claims in Massachusetts

BOSTON — The Department of Unemployment Assistance has released updated information regarding the scope and extent of the national unemployment fraud scam as it relates to Massachusetts. As previously announced, criminal enterprises in possession of stolen personal information from earlier, unrelated commercial data breaches continue to attempt to file large numbers of illegitimate unemployment claims through the Massachusetts unemployment system.

In total, Massachusetts has possibly lost over $430 million dollars to unemployment fraud scams from April 2020 through January 2021. According to an update issued by the Department of Unemployment Assistance, $219 million in payments confirmed to be fraudulent were issued and another $468 million was paid to claims that are considered potentially fraudulent. $252 million in fraudulent payments were recovered.

Out of 946,000 claims submitted for pandemic unemployment assistance, 627,000 were denied.

According to the update, in order to ensure the integrity of the unemployment system, DUA continues to apply enhanced identity verification measures that may temporarily delay the payment timeframe for some unemployment claims in Massachusetts. DUA is also working with state and federal law enforcement agencies, municipalities, and dedicated constituent service personnel to address the national unemployment fraud scheme and recover fraudulent payments. DUA’s analysis of the fraud scheme includes both claims that have been reported by individuals whose identity was used for a fraudulent claim and claims that have failed ID verification and other program integrity measures.

Individuals who believe a false unemployment claim has been filed in their name are urged to utilize the Department of Unemployment Assistance fraud contact form at https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud.