Fraud continues to burden Ohio's already overwhelmed unemployment system. Once a minor issue, fraudulent claims have exploded during the pandemic. At the same time, there are more Ohioans out of work and relying on the system.

Fraudulent claims are slowing down payments for the legitimate claimants. Fraudsters steal the identities of Ohioans to file claims in their names. The state still does not know how much money has gone out illegitimately but is working to figure that out.

With tax season around the corner, state officials fear many more Ohioans will soon learn their identities were compromised in 2020 without their knowledge.

Lisa Hyde-Miller, who lives in Cincinnati found out Thursday that someone tried to steal her identity.

She got a call from human resources after she left her job at Roll Hill Community Center.

"This is not happening. That was the first thing that came to my mind," she said.

The human resources employee told her someone applied for unemployment benefits in her name.

"They used their home address and their home phone number with my name and my social," she said.

She said she immediately started making calls and researching what to do next.

Hyde-Miller woke up early Friday morning and starting calling the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The numbers she found online at first were no help. Then she came across a WLWT article from August 2020.

The story was about a local woman whose personal information had been compromised. Someone filed for unemployment benefits in her name and received thousands of dollars. The woman was having a difficult time getting in touch with the right people to stop the payments. She said she spent hours on hold, emailed and faxed the ODJFS and two weeks later, still was not having any luck.

WLWT took her situation to ODJFS and found that her complaints were not going to the right place. We provided tips in our story with the correct contact information.

Hyde-Miller said she used the information in that story to solve her own case and was on the phone with the person she needed within 45 minutes.

"You gave me the right number to call," she said. "Here it is four, five months later and it helped me out today."

Ohio's overwhelmed unemployment system gets similar calls daily. ODJFS Director Kim Henderson said the agency saw more than a 2,000% increase in unemployment claims in March. Despite hiring more employees, the agency still has not been able to catch up. Henderson said the number of fraudulent claims is a big part of the reason why.

"The impact on the team and our capacity has been tremendous," she said. "I hear the concerns of those who are waiting."

The fraud is so widespread both Gov. Mike DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said unemployment claims have been filed in their names.

The overwhelming majority of the fraudulent attempts are occurring in the state's federal pandemic unemployment assistance program, coined PUA, as opposed to the state's regular unemployment program.

Husted said this week that 796,000 of the state's 1.4 million PUA claims have been flagged for 'potential fraud.' That is more than half of them.

Henderson said her agency is preparing to mail 1.7 million 1099-G tax forms to Ohioans on the record as receiving unemployment benefits in 2020. The agency caught nearly 170,000 forms, determined to be linked to fraudulent claims before they were sent out, but it knows there could be hundreds of thousands more.

"We know some individuals will be receiving forms who did not actually file for or receive benefits are likely victims of identity theft," she said.

Henderson said the state sent approximately 2,000 1099-G tax forms to Ohioans for 2019, in comparison to 1.7 million for 2020.

ODJFS recommends people take the following steps if you feel like you may be a fraud victim:

• Visiting the ODJFS unemployment website and click 'Report identity theft'
• Accessing the ODJFS fraud page at jfs.ohio.gov/fraud [jfs.ohio.gov] and clicking on the “Unemployment Insurance Claimant” button, which will take the victim to an online form to fill out
• Calling 1-800-686-1555 and pressing Option 1.
• Faxing information to 1-614-752-4808.
• Or sending ODJFS an email to ucbenprotest@jfs.ohio.gov.

If you are determined to be a victim of fraud:

• Follow all the steps above to alert ODJFS
• Review your credit report and place an initial fraud alert on your credit file
• File a police report
• File your taxes

CINCINNATI —

Some police departments across Greater Cincinnati are now seeing a surge of identity theft reports linked to unemployment fraud.

People said they're finding out something is wrong when they receive a tax form in the mail.

Officials said there are steps you should take if you find one of those forms in your mailbox.

It's a problem that is unfortunately becoming more common by the day.

One police department we talked with said they had five new identity theft reports linked to unemployment fraud on Wednesday.

"Yeah, it's makes you mad," victim Al said.

Al only wants to use his first name to protect his identity from any further harm but found himself filing a police report for identity theft last week.

He got a 1099-G tax form in the mail for fraudulent unemployment payments but said he hasn't been unemployed at all.

Al said he called the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and waited for more than an hour for help.

"They told me that they were going to put a flag on my account, as far as unemployment benefits go," he said.

He also said he checked with the three credit bureaus and his bank to make sure there wasn't anything suspicious happening there.

ODJFS said it has received 80,000 fraud reports online alone in two weeks.

One police report from our area showed a woman received, "A 1099 from Job and Family Services for collecting $23,000 in unemployment."

Another said a man told police there was a fraudulent claim for $16,000.

ODJFS Director Kim Henderson said the last three months of 2020, there were fraudulent traditional unemployment overpayments worth $2.3 million.

In just December, she said there were fraudulent pandemic unemployment assistance overpayments worth $330 million.

She described a surge when it comes to the 1099-G forms, pointing out that in January 2021, 1.7 million forms were issued compared to about 200,000 forms in January 2020.

"After we receive a report of potential identity theft, we will process the report, issue applicable fraud determinations and if necessary, issue a corrected 1099 form to the IRS," Henderson said.

Attorney General Dave Yost has asked congress to shield people in a scenario like Al's from paying taxes on the fraudulent funds, as more people catch on to the crime.

"I wanted to know who did it. I wanted to know how they did it. Who put the check in their hand or what address did it go to? And they couldn't help me," he said.

ODJFS said if this happens to you, you should report it immediately.

You can use a new online portal to address unemployment fraud by visiting unemployment.ohio.gov.

You can also call the new ID Theft Hotline at 1-833-658-0394.

Officials said you can file your taxes without the erroneous 1099-G form.

They also said you should take steps to protect your identity.

ODJFS recommends people take the following steps if you feel like you may be a fraud victim:

• Visiting the ODJFS unemployment website and click 'Report identity theft'
• Accessing the ODJFS fraud page at jfs.ohio.gov/fraud [jfs.ohio.gov] and clicking on the “Unemployment Insurance Claimant” button, which will take the victim to an online form to fill out
• Calling 1-800-686-1555 and pressing Option 1.
• Faxing information to 1-614-752-4808.
• Or sending ODJFS an email to ucbenprotest@jfs.ohio.gov.

If you are determined to be a victim of fraud:

• Follow all the steps above to alert ODJFS
• Review your credit report and place an initial fraud alert on your credit file
• File a police report
• File your taxes

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

Detectives with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department took to a popular metro-area Facebook group Tuesday with a plea to help name an identity theft suspect.

This one is a whopper — and it didn't take long to put a name to his face.

In the post, police said officers are following up on an ID theft case from last summer.

Police believe the suspect used a stolen identity to purchase a $58,000 Ford Explorer from Thoroughbred Ford on July 23, 2020.

But the suspect made it slightly easier to follow his trail — he posed for a photo with his new purchase at the dealership.

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Police made the post in the Stolen KC group, which helps spread word about thefts in communities across the metro area.

They followed up a short time later with a post on Twitter.

Turns out the suspect made it really easy to follow his trail. Police were able to identify him in less than an hour.

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Police said the man is already in custody in Kansas on different charges. They'll be following up with local prosecutors for charges in this case as well. His identity was not released.