Posted:
Monday, June 22, 2020
For those members that have been affected by the Fraudulent Unemployment Claims please know that the BTA has been working with the District to ensure they are following up with appropriate protocols. We have been assured that everyone currently affected have already been notified and in the unfortunate event any new fraudulent claims come in those people will be immediately notified. The District has been in communication with the Suffolk County District Attorney's office and the New York State Department of Labor and both of those departments have been coordinating with each other. As of today (6/22) we were informed that the Suffolk DA confirmed that NYSDOL has frozen the UI applications of those employees that had fraudulent claims submitted on their behalf.
Additionally, they are working on identifying the origins of the applications. As per Dr. Daly: The District will keep the BTA posted on all developments and anyone with questions can contact him.
Also, NYSUT has been working with the Director of the Investigations Unit at the NYS Department of Labor. NYSUT Office if General Council has reviewed what is known about the fraudulent claims at this time. It does not appear that there is any immediate cause of action that can be brought against any public employer based on what is currently known. According to information I received from NYSUT, it's important to note that in this particular fraud cycle, it is unlikely that the breach came from the respective employer. Rather, central database hacks are more likely the source of the breach. For example, we recently learned that the NYS Office of Technology Information Services was victimized in January. It's likely that this may have exposed large databases of current and former public employee information (State and Local).
At this time, please be sure to follow all of the recommended steps and if you discover any other false claims in your credit report you can now contact Feldman, Kramer, Monaco (www.fkmlaw.com) for assistance clearing up those claims. This is the Legal Service Plan we announced at our last meeting.
