Citing a “tremendous amount of sort of bot-based fraud going on around UI,” Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday encouraged anyone who is having trouble with a credible unemployment claim to contact his constituent services office as well as the unemployment insurance program.
“Last week there were 31,000 unemployment claims filed in Massachusetts, 1,000 of which actually passed the screening,” Baker said.
He said the bot-driven fraud activity is creating a series of problems across the country by making it hard to get an accurate count of how many new claims are being filed, creating additional work for busy unemployment insurance departments, and leading to longer lag times for people who are appropriately entitled to benefits.
In some cases, Baker said, fraudsters are hiring people to “call unemployment offices around the country and advocate for benefits, pretending to be somebody they’re not.”
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