Fraudulent Unemployment Claims

Teachers College has become aware of several attempts to file unemployment claims for individuals who are still employed at the College.  These are known as “impostor claims” and there has been an increase all over the country in such activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a fraud attempt, someone else applies for unemployment benefits using stolen employee information from public breach data and employment data pulled from department listings on public employer websites. 

Human Resources has employment verification systems in place for unemployment claims and will contact individuals if a false claim is received. If an employee becomes aware that someone is using their identity to collect unemployment benefits, they should report this immediately to Human Resources. The employee should also file a police report for identity theft, and report the fraud to the NYS Department of Labor fraud reporting website, as well as IdentityTheft.gov.

Scammers rely on social engineering: In a typical phone scam, an employee will receive a phone call from someone claiming to be from the Department of Labor (DOL). The caller may state that the DOL has no record of employment and ask for the employee’s Social Security number so that they can receive unemployment benefits. 

The DOL or anyone from TCIT or TC-HR will never contact employees by phone to request personal or financial information. Any TC employee who receives a call asking for a Social Security number or other personal information related to unemployment benefits should hang up immediately.

TCIT and HR are tracking unemployment phone scams and fraud attempts. Employees who experience any of these problems are asked to send an email to servicedesk@tc.columbia.edu or contact Human Resources at hr@tc.columbia.edu or (212) 678-3175. 

The Federal Trade Commission has a resource page dedicated to information about unemployment claim scams and steps to take if you’ve been a victim of this scam.