Massachusetts Seeing 'Tremendous Amount' Of Unemployment Fraud; 30,000 Potentially Fake Claims Filed Last Week
BOSTON (CBS) -- Massachusetts is seeing more fake unemployment claims. Gov. Charlie Baker said at his news conference Monday that last week there were 31,000 claims filed and only 1,000 of them passed a screening to show they were real.
"There's a tremendous amount of bot-based fraud going on around [unemployment insurance]," Baker said. "This is true across the country."
He said that makes it hard to get an accurate account of how many people need help. It also creates extra work for the departments that need to verify all claims.
"Some of these fraudsters are actually paying people to call unemployment offices around the country and advocate for benefits, pretending to be somebody they're not," Baker said.
Baker said if anyone is having issues filing a legitimate claim, they should reach out to his constituent services as well as the unemployment office.
Massachusetts had an unemployment rate of 7.4% for October.
Learn more about applying for unemployment benefits in Massachusetts here.