Troubleshooters: Consumers frustrated with process of reversing fraudulent unemployment claims

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Identity thieves and hackers have stolen billions of dollars nationwide by filing fraudulent unemployment claims.

Local victims whose accounts were compromised are now stuck in a nightmare situation, unable to get their issues resolved.

"I'm afraid to go to my mailbox every single day," said Samantha Angelone, who lives in Philadelphia's Fox Chase neighborhood.

She said her nightmare began with an $11,000 cash card she received a year ago for unemployment compensation benefits.

"I've never in all my years of working filed for unemployment," she said.

Angelone said someone fraudulently filed in her name. She filed a police report and a fraud report with the Pennsylvania Labor and Industry, which handles unemployment claims.

"No responses. I've not gotten any responses from unemployment from all the emails," she said. "One day I called 113 times on my phone."

What she has received is notice that she needs to pay the money back.

"I don't know what else I'm supposed to do."

Angelone wants written confirmation the fraudulent claim has been disqualified.

"Over time you begin to feel victimized, traumatized, you feel violated, and then you begin to get angry," said Frank Schlupp of Jenkintown.

Schlupp also wants written confirmation after a claim was fraudulently filed in his name.

"The check was for $643 for unemployment," he said.

Schlupp alerted the Pennsylvania Department of Industry and Labor and mailed the check back.

"And they still have not acknowledged that they even got the check that I returned," he said.

Instead, Schlupp received notification the payment was reported to the IRS, which could impact his taxes.

The Troubleshooters went to state officials and asked why Schlupp and Angelone can't get anything in writing.

"We just simply don't have anything like that," said Deputy Secretary Susan Dickenson. "There isn't anything other than eventually a revised 1099 may be issued, but we're still looking to see if that's a requirement or not."

Dickenson wouldn't comment specifically on Schlupp and Angelone but said any impacted taxpayers should simply deduct the fraudulent amount on their own.

"Don't wait for the state to give you any other revised documentation, just move forward with filing your taxes," she said.

But that advice does not sit well with consumers.

"I'm afraid that one day I'm gonna get up and all my money that I have in my bank account will be gone. I won't get a paycheck and my bills are going to start bouncing," said Angelone.

Meantime, tens of thousands of people are in the same boat and Pennsylvania said it hasn't had the staff to keep up. Since last June, 142,000 reports of unemployment fraud have been filed in the state, 47,000 are still pending and 60,000 fraud reports are pending for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

"We do have a priority order when we get those fraud complaints. People who are seeking benefits, unemployment benefits right now, those are the ones we're going to work on first," said Dickinson.

This means Angelone and Schlupp have no choice but to wait.

"I can't put this thing to rest until somebody acknowledges what happened," said Schlupp.

Pennsylvania has hired 46 new employees and temporarily reassigned 106 others to help with the backlog and customer service.

Right now, emails are answered on average in 50 days. The average hold time is one hour, and the best days to call are Thursdays and Fridays.