The Braintree Police Department has been receiving numerous complaints of unemployment fraud. Criminal enterprises using stolen personal information from national data breaches have been attempting to file fraudulent unemployment claims recently. If you receive a letter, in addition to reporting it to the Braintree Police, the proper state agency to report these incidents to is the Department of Unemployment Assistance. The Department of Unemployment Assistance's (DUA) top priority is to protect unemployment claimants and make sure money disbursed through the system is going to valid unemployment claims. These claims are part of a national unemployment fraud scheme. If you believe someone has applied for unemployment benefits using your personal information you can call the DUA customer service department at (877) 626-6800 or report the incident to them via the web at www.mass.gov and search “unemployment fraud” and fill out the unemployment fraud reporting form, or just copy the address below.
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/report-unemployment-benefits-fraud#howto-report-unemployment-benefits-fraud
After you submit the fraud reporting form, DUA’s Program Integrity Unit will take appropriate action, including freezing the DUA account associated with the report. If any payments were made, they will not be recognized as income to you at the end of the calendar year. In addition, the fraudulent claim will not impact your ability to collect unemployment should you need to in the future and no charges will be assessed to your employer.
