Oregon and Washington State have reported an increase in fraudulent unemployment claims. Impostors are filing claims for unemployment benefits by using the names and personal information of people who have not filed claims. For more information about this issue, please visit the Oregon.gov and Oregon Department of Justice websites.
When unemployment claims are received by the Human Resources Department for active University employees, Human Resources may reach out to the employee to confirm that they did in fact file for unemployment. If an employee reports that they did not file a claim, Human Resources will file the claim as fraudulent with the Unemployment Office and provide the employee with the resources listed below.
If you think a fraudulent unemployment claim has been submitted under your name, please contact Human Resources (hr@up.edu).
The Unemployment Office recommends the following steps and resources to protect your personal and financial information:
Complete the UI Fraud Referral Form: Visit the site at this link and click “Report Identity Theft” on the left hand menu. (Also linked here)
Protect Your Finances: Visit www.IdentityTheft.gov to report the fraud to the FTC and get help with the next important recovery steps. These include placing a free, one-year fraud alert on your credit, getting your free credit reports, and closing any fraudulent accounts opened in your name. IdentityTheft.gov will also help you add a free extended fraud alert or credit freeze to your credit report. These make it more difficult for an identity thief to open new accounts in your name.
Review your credit reports often. For the next year, you can check your reports for errors every week for free through www.AnnualCreditReport.com
Contact the three major credit bureaus: Report to the credit bureaus that the fraudulent claim was made using your identity and provide them with the case number from your police report (if you have one). You can have a fraud alert put on your identity or freeze your credit. Doing either is free by law. To place a fraud alert, contact one of the three credit bureaus listed below.
- Experian 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion 1-800-680-7289
- Equifax 1-800-525-6285
File a nonemergency police report with the agency whose jurisdiction you live in. For information from the City of Portland visit their website linked here.
Additional Resources
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides ID theft assistance to University employees. They have resources available on their site linked here.