\u00a0An urgent alert has been issued concerning a scam that targets claimants who are collecting unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n
Michigan Attorney General Dana\u00a0Nessel\u00a0on Wednesday, November 25th, 2020, issued an\u00a0urgent\u00a0alert\u00a0advising residents to be aware of a current scam taking advantage of\u00a0claimants who are collecting unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n
Claimants are receiving an email from\u00a0a Gmail account\u00a0that appears to be from the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) asking for personal information. The scammer is also attaching\u00a0what looks like an\u00a0actual\u00a0communication\u00a0from the UIA in an apparent effort to strengthen the credibility of the email.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no government agency, state or federal, that uses Gmail for official purposes,\u201d\u00a0Nessel\u00a0said, noting the scammer\u2019s\u00a0email address. \u201cMichigan residents should\u00a0always\u00a0examine the full email address if the sender is requesting their personal information.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you received this email, do not respond. UIA would never ask you to reply to an email with your personal information. Responses to ID verification requests from UIA should only be uploaded through your secure Michigan Web Account Manager (MiWAM) account online at the\u00a0UIA\u2019s website, where you can\u00a0also learn more about\u00a0protecting yourself from identity theft.<\/p>\n
Anyone who has fallen for this scam should immediately\u00a0Report Fraud or Identity Theft\u00a0with the UIA. They should also monitor their banking and account information each time they certify for benefits.<\/p>\n
\u201cBad actors are increasingly sophisticated in their efforts to deceive people into giving away personal information,\u201d said\u00a0Nessel. \u201cThis is one of the cruelest scams I\u2019ve ever seen because it targets vulnerable residents who are desperate to receive their UIA benefits \u2013 so desperate that they may not inspect the email address to confirm its validity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0An urgent alert has been issued concerning a scam that targets claimants who are collecting unemployment benefits. Michigan…\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n