The NLCRPD has received a continuing and escalating series of series of reports from all municipalities across the NLCRPD Primary Jurisdiction concerning individuals who have had been victimized by compromised use of their personal identifiers to register for unemployment benefits. NLCRPD is investigating a report of identity theft in connection with the filing of unemployment compensation claim utilizing the identifiers of the reporting party. The caller reported the event to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry as well as the Human Resources Department of their past employer. The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry also advised the reporting party to contact their local police services provider for the filing of a report. NLCRPD provided the caller with the requisite warnings for monitoring of personal accounts, credit cards, and other billings for unauthorized transactions. In the contact with the NLCRPD patrol officer the caller was also provided with the incident reporting number to facilitate any resultant communications concerning this incident. According to the information posted on the webpage for the Department of Labor and Industry the following paragraphs provide insight to the problem.
The Department of Labor & Industry’s (L&I) security vendor ID.me has identified additional phishing attempts and fraud scams leveraging social media, text messaging, and email to lure unsuspecting individuals into providing personal information so that the scammers can claim their identity.
The most recent scams include but are not limited to telling individuals they’ve won contests, won a cash prize, being eligible for monetary award for applying for benefits or offering an alternative or “faster” application or mobile app to apply for regular unemployment or PUA benefits.
This is just the latest of attempts from scammers to use personal information to apply for benefits, like the large fraud attempt in June in which L&I mailed the Notice of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Claim Filed to all claimants in the PUA system to provide further guidance if they did not submit a PUA application. This guidance still applies if you believe you have been targeted in the latest phishing attempts or scams.
If you were a victim of ID Theft, it is very important to report the PUA fraud activity to the Department and return the money. Doing so will remove these fraudulent payments from being reported as income on the end of the year 1099G distribution.
Incident #: 2107009397
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 15:28:44
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
NLCRPD Sector: L86 SECTOR 12 WARWICK TWP P867
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-9
Location: CRIMSON LN
Municipality: WARWICK TOWNSHIP
Cross Streets: FIELD LN/MARIE DR
Latitude: 40.1797873678466
Longitude: -76.2815218110624
Incident #: 2107009381
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 15:22:33
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
Sector: L86 SECTOR 11 WARWICK TWP P867
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-9
Location: VALLEY CROSSING DR
Municipality: WARWICK TOWNSHIP
Cross Streets: DEAD END/LITITZ BEND DR
Latitude: 40.133680131642
Longitude: -76.3211363373033
Incident #: 2107009314
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 14:41:25
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
Sector: L86 SECTOR 12 WARWICK TWP P867
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-8
Location: BALMER RD
Municipality: WARWICK TOWNSHIP
Cross Streets: HUMMINGBIRD DR//MANCHESTER LN
Latitude: 40.1630738575429
Longitude: -76.2898487184189
Incident #: 2107009132
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 12:04:31
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
Sector: L86 SECTOR 14 WARWICK TWP P867
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-9
Location: BRIAN DR
Municipality: WARWICK TOWNSHIP
Cross Streets: EDGEWOOD DR/DEAD END
Latitude: 40.1481366480137
Longitude: -76.2534701851308
Incident #: 2107008988
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 10:19:12
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
Sector: L86 SECTOR 31 PENN TWP P868
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-20
Location: SILVERWOOD DR
Municipality: PENN TOWNSHIP
Cross Streets: ELM RD/DEAD END
Latitude: 40.1929652820333
Longitude: -76.3629077765732
Incident #: 2107009173
Type: FRAUD-NOT IN PROG
Time Received: 07/08/2021 12:35:30
Status: COMPLETE
Service: POLICE
Sector: L86 SECTOR 41 EAST PETE BORO P8610
Primary Agency: NORTHERN LANCASTER COUNTY REGIONAL POLICE DEPARTMENT
Responsible Unit: P86-7
Location: GOLDEN DR
Municipality: EAST PETERSBURG BOROUGH
Cross Streets: SPECKLED DR/BROOK DR
Latitude: 40.0933902598249
Longitude: -76.3427407692966