To protect unemployment insurance claimants from fraud, the Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI) announced Friday it will not allow claimants to change their banking account information on file.
State officials said the move comes after OUI was made aware of claimants reporting unauthorized changes to their bank accounts in recent days. Officials add they are verifying these reports and will notify any affected claimants as appropriate.
No security breach has occurred to OUI security systems or the IT infrastructure related to these reports.
Officials believe the instances are isolated, rather than systemic, instances of fraud and are the next wave of fraudulent activity hitting UI systems nationwide. They said in the newest form; the fraudulent activity occurs when criminals exploit unsophisticated PIN numbers (e.g., “1111” or “1234”) created by claimants, used in conjunction with publicly available information obtained from other sources on the Internet.
To address this situation moving forward, OUI will require new and existing claimants to create more complex PINs.
In addition, all-new UI claimants will only be paid by paper check effective immediately.
Every UI claimant receiving direct deposits from OUI should log into their account immediately and check their payment method on file. If it appears incorrect, they should opt to receive future payments via paper check.
