GDOL warns of phone hoax

ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Labor is warning Georgians of recent telephone scammers attempting to steal personally identifiable information while posing as an employee of the Georgia Department of Labor.

The GDOL received several reports of an automated call claiming that the individual’s social security number had been compromised in Texas and asking for individuals to press a button to talk with a representative about next steps. The call appears to come from the Georgia Department of Labor. The GDOL is not calling claimants to address potential fraud in another state. If individuals receive an automated call, the Labor office warns that they should be aware of potential fraud.

The GDOL will never ask for all nine digits of a social security number to identify a claimant. If a claimant is contacted by the GDOL, the representative already knows the claimant’s account details and will not have to ask for specific identifying information, a release from the department said..

The agency encourages anyone who has received a fraudulent call and has given any information to a potential fraudster to contact the Federal Trade Commission to report the potential identity theft at https://www.identitytheft.gov/?utm_source=takeaction. The GDOL also suggests filing a police report with a local police department.

“This is just another example of how bad actors are slowing down the unemployment benefit process for Georgians,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said. “These tricks are being attempted all over the nation, and we must be vigilant to not fall victim to these criminals.”

If an individual needs to verify his/her identity with the GDOL, they will be directed to ID.me, the agency’s nationally recognized partner for identity verification. This solution, combined with additional fraud prevention methods, provides a multifactor authentication that is critical to claimant security.

The GDOL is continuing to work with a special task force comprising state and federal agencies to tackle individual and organized crime, including telephone scams. To help identify potential fraud with an individual’s account, the GDOL encourages reporting fraud and abuse on the agency’s homepage under Online Services at www.dol.state.ga.us.

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