States across the country are seeing fraudulent unemployment claims and Colorado is no exception. Colorado employers are seeing unemployment claims being filed either in the name of active employees or in the name of people who have never worked for them before. The state has stopped more than 800,000 fraudulent claims, preventing about $7 billion in fraudulent unemployment payments. It is speculated that the volume of this identity theft points to several data breaches that occurred in recent years compromising millions of identities.
If you receive an email from cdle_ui-alerts@state.co.us VERIFY THAT THE EMAIL ADDRESS IS LEGITIMATE before following the links or login to your MyUI Employer account at https://myuiemployer.coworkforce.com/. This email may be an alert of an unemployment claim that is fraudulent. Additionally, if you receive a notification on an active employee, notify the employee that they may be a victim of identity theft
To report identify theft, go to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment website, https://cdle.colorado.gov/. From there, scroll to “unemployment” on the ribbon in the middle of the page and select “report fraud” or use this link, https://cdle.colorado.gov/fraud-prevention. Choose the appropriate button and follow the prompts.
It should be noted that benefits paid on fraudulent claims would be charged against your unemployment account. Once the claim is closed for fraudulent activity, your account will be credited for any benefits that might have been paid.
Should you receive a claim for an employee still on the payroll, do not complete the MyUI Employer questionnaire. Instead file a Fraud Report using https://cdle.colorado.gov/fraud-prevention. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has listed other important steps for your employees to take if they are a victim of fraud: https://www.stopfraudcolorado.gov/fraud-center/identity-theft.html.