#22 Employment Fraud
Has your Social Security number (SSN) gone to work without you? If someone has used your SSN to get a job, that’s identity theft.
How does employment-related fraud occur?
A criminal background, an illegal status, or even a bad work history can make it difficult to find employment. That’s why identity thieves are often resorting to employment fraud. In order to pass a background check or to satisfy employment eligibility requirements, a fraudster could use your Social Security number. Even if the employment process requires more than a SSN, employer background checks are often not very thorough. Identity thieves may only need a small amount of additional information in order to pass the loose scrutiny.
How could employment related fraud affect my identity?
If an identity thief uses your personal information for employment purposes, there could be a devastating effect on your employment history and your name. Since an incorrect employment history will be reported to the Social Security Administration, you may face tax audits, lost tax refunds, and errors on permanent government records. The criminal could even use your identity to secure medical services, to obtain home utilities or credit, and more. And if you apply for a new job, your employment history may be incorrect and misleading. The effects could take years to resolve.
This crime can cause a significant burden to innocent taxpayers, including the incorrect computation of taxes based on income that doesn’t belong to the victim. A taxpayer victim of this crime may first realize they are a victim of this variant of identity theft when they receive an IRS notice of a discrepancy in the income that they reported on their income tax return.
Credit monitoring will not alert you to this type of fraud.
LibertyID will take the following steps for/with their members:
- Contact the IRS and Social Security Administration on behalf of the victim.
- Place fraud alerts at all three credit reporting agencies.
- Place credit freezes at all three credit reporting agencies, if appropriate.
- File report with FTC.
- Contact the any other relevant agencies to notify them of the theft.
- Review credit reports with the victim to ensure there is no other types of fraud.
- Provide single bureau credit monitoring with alerts for 12 months.
- LibertyID will ensure that the restoration is completed with the victim.
- Periodically contact the member throughout the 12 months following resolution of their ID theft recovery case, if warranted.