ALBANY — Some number of statewide fraudulent unemployment claims were made using the information of Berne town employees, prompting the town to alert lawmakers and state officials about the attempts. 

“We are getting fraudulent Unemployment Insurances Claims at an alarming rate with very accurate information,” Supervisor Sean Lyons told The Enterprise in an email this week, “and it appears to be a statewide issue (private sector and municipal) with the Department of Labor that needs to be brought to the attention of State lawmakers and the Attorney General to protect everyone’s identities, etc.”

Joel Willsey, the lone Democrat on the town board, told The Enterprise this week that he was among those targeted.

Whatever agent was behind the fraudulent claim, which Willsey became aware of in January, had used his name and home address in the claim, as well as the last four digits of his Social Security number.

Town board members in Berne are part-time employees and were paid $3,635 each in 2020.

In a statement sent to The Enterprise in response to inquiries, New York State Department of Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon said, “Our Office of Special Investigations is aggressively deploying advanced resources, from artificial intelligence, to tools like ID.me, to fight this fraud.”

In the months between the declaration of the coronavirus pandemic last March and August of 2020, the Department of Labor identified and stopped more than 42,200 fraudulent claims, according to a press release.

The rise in fraudulent claims corresponds to the rise in unemployment amid the pandemic. State data show that the unemployment rate in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy rose from 3.9 percent to 6.0 percent between January 2020 and January 2021.

As of this March, there were 25,700 unemployed workers in the same area, a rate of 5.7 percent. In New York City, the unemployment rate jumped from 3.8 percent to 13.1 percent between January 2020 and 2021.

The value of unemployment benefits has also gone up to match the challenges of COVID-19, with the federal government granting $300 to each person collecting unemployment, in addition to whatever amount they were collecting according to pre-pandemic formulas. That bonus will remain in place until Sept. 6, although states can opt out sooner.

Across the state, 4.6 million New Yorkers have collected $81.3 billion in benefits, as of late April. Meanwhile, the state Department of Labor has stopped over a million fraudulent claims seeking more than $12.3 billion in benefits.

The Department of Labor states that individuals who receive a “monetary determination” from the Department of Labor despite not filing for unemployment should report it online at on.ny.gov/uifraud, and then secure personal information such as account passwords or personal identification numbers, and make sure that finances are unaffected. 

Once a report is filed, the Department of Labor says, individuals will receive an email confirming receipt. Further contact will be made only if agents need more information about the case. The department warns that, even when fraud is stopped in an individual case, correspondence related to the fraud may still arrive for months, and that these do not need to be reported.

“While our investigators are always one step ahead of stopping these criminals who are attempting to steal unemployment benefits that provide a lifeline to New Yorkers,” Reardon said in her statement, “we also need the public’s help in reporting anything that looks suspicious.”

Reardon advised following these tips from the Department of Labor to help residents “protect themselves against fraud and to help us in our efforts to catch these fraudsters”:

— The labor department uses text messages to provide updates and allow claimants to certify for backdated benefits; its text messages will come only via DocuSign or from the numbers 468-311 or 22751. Watch out for SMShing attempts where fraudsters use text messages to lure you into calling back a fraudulent phone number, visiting fraudulent websites, or downloading malicious content via phone or web;

— The labor department uses social media to provide updates and answer questions. Never give your Social Security number over social media. Department agents and chatbots will never ask for this information through social media. Double-check all social media accounts before interacting with them to confirm you are interacting with verified accounts. Block and report any other accounts that follow or interact with you and purport to be from the labor department; and

— Use only trusted devices to access your online account. Password-protect your home internet and only connect to well-known or reputable Wi-Fi hotspots if you’re in public.