Identity thieves have targeted more than 50 Harvard town and school employees, using their stolen information to file fraudulent claims with the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance. Police records show that many residents who work for private employers have been caught up in the same scam.
Last spring, the coronavirus pandemic led to soaring unemployment claims in Massachusetts and across the country. And by May, news broke that international criminal enterprises were exploiting the crisis to file fraudulent claims for state assistance, using stolen personal information such as Social Security numbers and birth dates. Massachusetts was just one of many states beset by the claims.
As Harvard’s human resource director, Marie Sobalvarro is usually the first to become aware of a false unemployment claim for a town employee. She told the Press the town had received a few fraudulent claims over the summer, but the number increased sharply in mid-September. Since then, she says, she has been seeing 10 or 12 fake claims a week.
Some of the claims, Sobalvarro said, used the names of real town employees, while others used fake names attached to the Social Security numbers (SSNs) of town employees. Among those targeted have been police officers, teachers, coaches, librarians, Town Hall workers in finance and administration, and Council on Aging employees. “Every department,” Sobalvarro summed up. “There really does seem to be no pattern.”
In some painful cases, Sobalvarro said, several town employees whose names had been used in the scam were later in fact laid off. Then the earlier false claims in their names led to delays in their unemployment benefits.
While the scammers have some personal information, such as SSNs and sometimes names and birth dates, the job titles on the false claims are apparently random. Someone in the Police Department may be described on the unemployment claim form as a computer programmer, or a teacher as an accountant.
The scam wastes hours of time, both for the people whose identities are stolen and for human resource officers across the state. Sobalvarro said it is now taking her about half a day each week to complete the three forms—at least—required by the Department of Unemployment Assistance for each fake claim.
Likewise, the state advises anyone whose SSN has been used in a false claim to file a police report, notify their bank and credit card companies, change their passwords, put a credit freeze on their accounts with the three main credit reporting agencies, and place a fraud alert on their credit files.
If the fraud wasn’t detected in time, the state may have dispersed some money in response to the claim. And, when tax time arrives next April, police say the person whose SSN was used in the fraud could find the payment showing up as part of their income. In such a case, it is important to have filed a report of the crime.
Sobalvarro said she had discussed the identity thefts with her counterparts in towns across the state, and it appears the data breach was not in Massachusetts state records. Likewise, the state and several news sources referred to national data breaches. “But where is the data breach?” Sobalvarro wondered.
