The Department of Workforce Services (DWS) has seen an increase in scam text messages regarding Unemployment Insurance and Workers’ Compensation benefits designed to seize account and personal information.
Liz Gagen, DWS Director, says it’s important to protect against fraud and identity theft: “The Department of Workforce Services will only send claimants messages by their preferred method of contact.”
Scammers attempt to obtain personal information in order to file fraudulent claims or compromise existing accounts. Be careful about requests by phone, text or email to share personally identifiable information such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, PIN numbers or account passwords. DWS will never send text messages with a link to log in to an account.
Avoid clicking links in emails and text messages. Anyone who is unsure about any link asking to log into an account, should disregard the link and instead access online accounts from the account’s official website.
Anyone who has filed an unemployment or workers’ compensation claim should verify that address, phone number, email and payment method are correct and have not been altered. For questions about Unemployment Insurance or Workers’ Compensation please visit the DWS website at dws.wyo.gov. Additional tips for protecting personal data is available at cybersecurity.wyo.gov.