Palos Park Police Warn Residents Of Unemployment Debit Card Scam

PALOS PARK, IL – The Palos Park Police Department is warning area residents to be aware of a scam that is targeting senior citizens who may receive a bank debit card from the Illinois Department of Employment Security in the mail for unemployment benefits.

The department received a complaint over the weekend from a victim who did not file an unemployment claim but received a KeyBank debit card, which indicates the senior is a target of fraud, police said. The department has learned that IDES is aware there are individuals who see an opportunity to take advantage of the process to provide short-term economic relief to those impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Unemployment systems across the country are dealing with and mitigating fraud of unemployment insurance programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has left victims to wonder how their information was used to obtain a debit card and whether he claim for unemployment was made in person or digitally using a victim’s social security number.

Palos Park Police urge residents who feel they are a victim to report the incident and contact credit bureaus in case of an identity theft. Suspects who are participating in the scam and who are applying for the IDES benefits seem to be using personal information from victims obtained from phishing scams or previous unrelated data breaches, police said.

Federal authorities cautions that sometimes payments get sent to the real person’s account, instead of the suspect. When this occurs sometimes suspects call, text, or email trying to get the victims to send some or all of the money to them. They may say they are from the state unemployment agency and say that the money was sent by mistake.

If residents receive a letter or debit card in the mail for unemployment benefits and they did not file for unemployment, they should immediately destroy the debit card that came in the mail and report the fraud.