When a potential fraud case is opened with the State Workforce Agency, they will use a variety of steps to investigate the case. Using the information that Thomas & Company and the employee provided, the states will start with cross matching data with a variety of sources to make a determination based on the facts in the case.
Once identity theft has been verified, the State Workforce Agencies will often work with the State Police, U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, FBI, Secret Service and the State Attorney General’s Office, as well as several banking partners, to ensure appropriate prosecution and recovery of funds where possible. Once the theft is reported to the State Workforce Agency, the agency revokes the UI account of the fraud victim and cooperates with law enforcement and banks, but it’s up to those external agencies, and not the state, to locate the criminals and prosecute them.
The state may need additional information from the employee so it is important that they complete any additional state requests for information quickly, so they can continue to investigate the claim of fraud.
Many states are currently overwhelmed with fraudulent cases so it may take some time to get any status updates from the state. Make sure that your employees keep documentation of all attempts to reach the state – including keeping records of who they spoke to, when they spoke and what the next steps need to be.