Having my social security number used for fraudulent activity really made me angry. When I got the first letter on Monday, September 28, from the Kansas Department of Labor telling me that I had filed for unemployment benefits, I was shocked. I had not done that. I was still working. But it listed my employer and had my information.
I spent the next day dealing with the fallout. Luckily for me, I had frozen my credit accounts five years ago, when someone filed a fraudulent tax return. My credit was safe, but my sense of security was now stolen. I contacted the Kansas Department of Labor (who filed a police report), the Social Security Administration through www.theft.gov., my bank, my credit card companies, the credit agencies just to add a one year fraud alert, my job, my accountant and my brother because I had a joint bank account with him.
I began to realize that I was not the only one, when my accountant admitted that he too had received such a letter, and his Social Security number was being used fraudulently! Several other people I knew also had it happen.
I could not understand what a person would gain from this filing, the department of labor had all my information. But then came the stunner. The next day I got a second letter showing a filing for (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) PUA, of $22,000. There was a claim that I as a ‘gig’ working earning close to $100,000 a year. WOW. I filed and updated my stolen identity reports.
Later that evening I got a phone call from my boss, someone else at work had received a letter from the Kansas Department of Labor for an Unemployment claim. Could I help her? Yes. I could. I had an email from my husband from his place of employment outlining exactly what to do if you had your identity stolen. It seems many at his place of employment also had also had employees with unemployment claims filed. I passed the email on. The next day I reviewed a revised edition of this email that my boss had edited for our staff.
I will say I began to feel better knowing I was not the only one! It was not schadenfreude, it was relief. First the Department of Labor had a note on their website letting me know that this was not my fault, and that I was not in trouble. In fact, over 45,000 fraudulent claims have been made by crooks during the pandemic just in Kansas alone. I, at least, found out because I am still working. Many don’t find out till they file a claim and find out someone has already received unemployment benefits in their name!
But it shook my world in a time when the world keeps shaking. We have COVID. We have false information about masks. We have rampant unemployment. We have gun violence. We have an increase in young adults and teens dying by suicide. We have increasing racism and anti-Semitism. We have fires burning down communities resulting from climate change that is causing other issues as well. We have politicians who seem to be more concerned about their own political careers than about the people they SERVE!
That is why I am voting to return sanity to public service. I am putting my voice behind candidates who still care about the people of the United States and Kansas. People who I know care about our children, our education system and our health care. Barbara Bollier, Sharice Davids, Ethan Corson, and Joy Koesten are all Kansas people I believe Kansans can trust in a time when we all have so many reasons to be distrustful!
As for the United States, Biden and Harris have such a more positive outlook for our country. I am tired of lies, misinformation, misdirection and conspiracy theories being supported. I am tired of the lack of support for health issues and the wearing of masks to help our country and our people. I am tired of an administration that does not care about all the peoples of the United States and only wants to help some of the population. It is time that we were all united once again.
WE need cyber security. WE need to help our environment. WE need to put the racists back into a box and seal the lead. WE need health care for all especially in a pandemic. WE need women’s rights to be protected.
Everyone needs to vote.
zicharonot 
As if things aren’t scary enough and to have this happen. Your post was an eye opener on something I had no idea was happening. TY
To be honest I wish it did not happen. But if Kansas has 45,000 imagine the larger population states?
That’s a new one, but I guess not a surprise. When Ricky died a few weeks before April 15, I found out someone had stolen his SS # and received an IRS refund! It took over 2yrs to straighten it out. As if I didn’t have enough going on, I didn’t need this! I think cyber security may only be possible when the hackers work for our side!
That would be so stressful!!! I am sorry it happened!
I am so sorry you experienced this. Why, oh why, are there so many bad people out there? And I am with you all the way on the need to get this country moving in a different direction. I hope Kansas goes blue!
I wish I knew. But I do know cyber security has a long way to go before we can be safe. I was told that probably everyone’s social security numbers were stolen in the early years of internet. And they wait to use them.
Wonderful….. 😦