Important Information:
The Vermont Department of Labor has received multiple reports of fraudulent communications relating to unemployment insurance benefits being sent to Vermonters. The Department reminds Vermonters filing for UI to be diligent in preventing fraud and to report any potential fraud to the Department and Attorney General’s Office.
On Monday and early Tuesday morning, the Department received information detailing two different communications in which the senders fraudulently state that ‘eligible workers’ could ‘receive COVID-19 Benefits’ from ‘the Department of Labor’. A screen shot has been included below.
Text Message
- Sent from ‘tiona.sykes@ lcmchealth. org’
- Details how the Department will pay eligible workers $3,750 in COVID benefits and compensation, starting on Tuesday November 24, 2020
- Provides fraudulent link to ‘Register’ and ‘Apply’
- Sent from ‘Hao Ran Xia <978269 @learn. vsb.bc .ca>’
- Details how the Department will pay eligible workers $3,750 in COVID benefits and compensation, starting on Monday, November 23, 2020
- Provides link to ‘COVID-19 Benefits’ page to register
Please note that while these two cases have been reported to the Department, that UI fraud may present in other methods. The Department of Labor reminds claimants to be vigilant of potential fraud and only use its official website (labor.vermont.gov) to apply and file for unemployment insurance benefits.
To report fraud to the Department of Labor, and for more information on prevention, go to labor.vermont.gov/ui-fraud.
Additional updates to this phishing attempt will be provided at https://labor.vermont.gov/phishing-scam-updates.