Washington State is the prime target of an unemployment scam being perpetrated by a sophisticated group of fraudsters in Nigeria, according to the United States secret service.

Thousands of Washington residents have had their identities stolen and in some cases, fake unemployment insurance claims are being filed.

I have noticed a ton of my friends have posted that they are victims of this scene. So what to do if you are a victim of this scam, here's what the State says to do:

Unemployment benefits fraud

Washington state takes unemployment insurance fraud very seriously. If you have reason to believe someone has applied for unemployment benefits using your information or used a scam to obtain your private information, please report that to us using the information below.

Information you will need to provide when reporting benefit fraud:

  1. Your full name
  2. Last 4 numbers of your Social Security number (never put your full SSN in an email)
  3. Your address
  4. Your date of birth
  5. Brief description of how you found out an imposter-fraud claim was filed using your information
  6. Please let us know: If an imposter-fraud claim was filed using your information, do you give us permission to deny and cancel it?

Here are some additional steps to take if you think your identity has been stolen:

 

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