Other States Seeing Success In Fighting Unemployment Fraud With ID.me Verification Software
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois Department of Employment Security has said it plans to add more than 100 people to stop the widespread unemployment fraud problem.
The IDES is also retraining their staff to detect and stop it.
Meanwhile, CBS 2 Political Investigator has found another system that seems to be working in other states. Those states are using ID.me software that both verifies identities and weeds out bad actors in minutes, and the states say they are seeing some success with the software.
Headaches for tens of thousands of Illinoisans trying to get unemployment benefits have kept getting worse – in large part because of fraud. And Illinois is not the only target.
"This is tantamount to a cyberattack on the United States of America, and we are largely stopping them." Said Blake Hall, chief executive officer of ID.me.
"States (were) coming to us saying, 'We have a backlog of 100,000-plus people,'" said Pete Eskew, senior vice president of public sector for the company.
ID.me software is now being used by nine states to help weed out fraudulent unemployment claims during the initial application process.
"Just like you would see a PayPal button embedded in a merchant's checkout flow, our button is embedded within the workflow," Hall said.
It offers identity verification in five minutes. If there is any problem, ID.me offers a video chat option.
Hall said that can take up to five hours. But by comparison to weeks or months of benefit verification struggles without ID.me, Hall and Eskew both call it a win.
"They least have a way to get through to prove who they are," Hall said.
We reached out to the states using ID.me. No unemployment administrators agreed to an interview.
But an Arizona state spokesperson told us the program is working. For example, during the week of Oct. 3, Arizona's unemployment agency had 570,400 mostly fraudulent claims – but that was before ID.me was implemented.
The week of Nov. 5, there were 6,700 legitimate claims – after ID.me went into effect.
As to whether there has been any interest in ID.me from Illinois unemployment administrators, Hall said: "There really isn't a state at this point that we haven't briefed or that isn't aware of us. We want to be respectful, because you know certainly, they'll make the decision that is right for themselves."
The Arizona spokesperson said that state expects ID.me will help prevent $15 million in fraudulent payouts at the very least.
Kozlov asked IDES spokeswoman Rebecca Cisco if ID.me was something Illinois was considering implementing. Cisco said the department does not comment on any potential partnerships or fraud detection specifics, but it is open to improving the specifics.
As to how much taxpayers could save with ID.me, Eskew said the information is proprietary and confidential and he would not disclose the cost. But he said it is priced on economies of scale.
The ID.me executives also said once identities are verified with the system, that verification travels between all governmental agencies.
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CBS 2 is committing to Working For Chicago, connecting you every day with the information you or a loved one might need about the jobs market, and helping you remove roadblocks to getting back to work.
We'll keep uncovering information every day to help this community get back to work, until the job crisis passes. CBS 2 has several helpful items right here on our website, including a look at specific companies that are hiring, and information from the state about the best way to get through to file for unemployment benefits in the meantime.
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