Disabled veteran approved for unemployment gets flagged for fraud

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Fraudsters and criminals are getting more sophisticated when it comes to stealing unemployment benefits, and legitimate claimants are being caught in CDLE's crosshairs

The Army vet was meant to receive $890 in unemployment benefits every week until he hit $15,000. However, he has only received two checks since March 3rd.

"Without the money, it's an undue hardship on my wife my family myself and it adds stress," said Rinder to 13 Investigates. "You wait in line and you finally get through and you tell (the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment) what is going on and they can't tell you why it is locked. They just know that it is locked."

Not long after Rinder spoke out, 13 Investigates learned the Army veteran's account was flagged as fraudulent by the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment (CDLE).

After an investigation, CDLE informed 13 Investigates that Rinder's account was actually not fraudulent, and his account would be unlocked.

"After completing a thorough investigation, our team concluded that Mr. Rinder was not knowingly involved in fraudulent activity," said CDLE in a statement to 13 Investigates. "His account has been unlocked and his payment hold will be released within the next few days."

Rinder expects to receive his third check worth $2,670 by Friday.

CDLE would not share specific details of the suspicious activity connected to Rinder's account for fear of fraudsters learning how the account got flagged. However, the state says there was a legitimate reason why the legitimate account got flagged. CDLE says this is a pattern they've noticed in recent weeks and months.

"We've spent a lot of times fighting fraudulent identity claims," said Unemployment Insurance Director Phil Spesshardt during a press call on June 16th. "This has been a difficult process related to fraud. There have been multiple stories in the press related to fraud, and why individuals have been having problems receiving payments at this time."

Spesshardt says CDLE has discovered multiple fishing websites aided by criminals to steal login credentials of UI claimants who have already been approved.

“They have moved onto a new level of scam trying to scam individuals who may have already passed IDMe,” said Spesshardt. “We want to make everyone readily aware of these scams we continue to implore all claims to remain vigilant of scams.”

Scammers are also using fishing emails, text messages, and robocalls to try and steal a legitimate claimant's login information.

Here are some tips to protect yourself against attempts to compromise your MyUI+ account and unemployment claim:

• Before completing each weekly certification, verify that your address, phone number, email, and payment method are correct and have not been altered.
  
• Do not share your password with anyone.
  
• Be careful about clicking links in emails and text messages. CDLE will never send you a text message with a link to log into your MyUI+ account.
  
• When logging into a page that looks like MyUI+, review the address bar in your browser to make sure it shows the genuine address for MyUI+: https://myui.clouduim.cdle.state.co.us/Claimant/Core/Login.ASPX.
  
• If you are unsure about any link asking you to log into your account, please disregard the link and instead access your MyUI+ account from the official CDLE website at ColoradoUI.gov.
  
• If you suspect your claim may have been hijacked for fraudulent activity, please log into your account using your current credentials and reset your password immediately, then review and update your address, phone, email, and payment method.