Avoid Unemployment Fraud

Cases of unemployment insurance fraud are on the rise.

Unemployment fraud includes false claims filed with stolen personal information, also known as imposter fraud. This includes fake websites designed to steal personal information. The Employment Security Department (ESD) does not request sensitive information outside of their official, secure website. Any site that requests confidential information should be treated with suspicion.

Before entering any personal information into an online form to apply for unemployment benefits, double check that the URL is https://secure.esd.wa.gov/.

Three Important Facts

According to ESD Commissioner, Suzi Levine, here are the three most important things for you to know about unemployment imposter fraud:

If someone is a victim of fraud, they will NOT have to repay the money.
If someone is a victim of fraud and then needs to apply for benefits, they will still be able to do so.
The ESD will only be reaching out to people from the esd.wa.gov domain and only asking people to provide information on their website: esd.wa.gov. Beware of anyone claiming to offer help by sending you to a phony website asking for your employers information.

Reporting Fraud

If you have reason to believe someone has applied for unemployment benefits using your information or used a scam to obtain private information, the fastest way to report is through the ESD through their Fraud Reporting Form, available here.

While the fastest way to report fraud is through the form, you can also report by:

Calling the Office of Special Investigations at 800-246-9763.
Emailing ESDGPInternalFraud@esd.wa.gov
- Information to include in your email:
  - Your full name
  - Last 4 digits of your social security number (never put your full SSN in an email)
  - Your address
  - Your date of birth
  - Brief description of how you found out an imposter-fraud claim was filed using your information
  - Please let us know: If an imposter-fraud claim was filed using your information, do you give us permission to deny and cancel it?