The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) confirmed that they have “blocked more than 1 million fake claims but haven’t yet revealed how many have slipped through or how much money has been lost,” WGN9 reported on March 11.
“Fraudsters are finding any avenue through which to get in the door and into the system,” an IDES spokeswoman wrote in an email, used in the WGN9 report. “They are continually modifying and evolving their schemes to try to crack state unemployment insurance agencies anti-fraud measures, and … [this] is just one of those schemes.”
Lourdes Duarte of WGN9 has recently reported that a small business owner of a Northwest Side bridal shop received a stack of letters from IDES, asking her to verify unemployment claims for 10 people.
Kelly Modjeski Hamilton, owner of I Do Bridal Consignment, said she doesn’t know the names on the letters while one was named under her mother who hasn’t worked in 40 years.
“The states are so overwhelmed, they haven’t figured out how to keep this from happening,” Terry Savage said. She is a financial expert who has been tracking trends in fraudulent unemployment claims since the COVID-19 crisis.
According to Duarte, IDES recommends reporting to them the fraud if anybody receives a letter but had not filed for unemployment claims.
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