Montpelier, Vt. – The Vermont Department of Labor has received multiple reports of fraudulent communications relating to unemployment insurance benefits being sent to Vermonters. The Department reminds Vermonters filing for UI to be diligent in preventing fraud and to report any potential fraud to the Department of Labor and Attorney General’s Office.

On Monday and early Tuesday morning, the Department received information detailing two different communications in which the senders fraudulently state that ‘eligible workers’ could ‘receive COVID-19 Benefits’ from ‘the Department of Labor’.

Text Message

• Sent from ‘tiona.sykes @lcmchealth. org’
• Details how the Department will pay eligible workers $3,750 in COVID benefits and compensation, starting on Tuesday November 24, 2020
• Provides fraudulent link to ‘Register’ and ‘Apply’

Email

• Sent from ‘Hao Ran Xia <978269 @learn.vsb .bc.ca>’
• Details how the Department will pay eligible workers $3,750 in COVID benefits and compensation, starting on Monday, November 23, 2020
• Provides link to ‘COVID-19 Benefits’ page to register

The Department is currently working with the State IT security team, the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, State Police, and multiple federal law enforcement agencies to respond to this issue.

Claimants are reminded to be vigilant of potential fraud and only use its official website (labor.vermont.gov), and sub-pages, to apply and file for unemployment insurance benefits.

To report suspected fraud activity to the Department of Labor, and for more information on prevention, go to labor.vermont.gov/ui-fraud.