Officials with the state’s Department of Labor and Industry are warning residents to be aware of a new scam.
The department’s secretary Jerry Oleksiak says the scam is making the rounds nationally and involves fraudsters offering cash rewards to access unemployment compensation benefits.
“The latest scam involves people engaging in social engineering to commit identity theft by circulating emails and Facebook posts informing recipients them they’ve won a prize,” Oleksiak said. “Then when the victim clicks on the links, the hacker has them take steps to tie their identity to the attacker’s login.”
Oleksiak says messages through social media that claim to be from Labor and Industry are most likely fraudulent because the department doesn’t offer social media assistance.