Steven Yee, the owner of Chi Thai Restaurant, said he has received eight letters from the Ohio Department of Job And Family Services Unemployment Division regarding claims.
He says he knew he didn’t have that many people leave during last year so he immediately thought it was suspicious.
It turns out the letters came from six different unemployment offices across the state.
“And I filled out every single one of the forms and said 'never worked here I think it's a scam.' If I do anything if I just tossed the letter I think they would get the benefit,“ he said.
Ohio’s unemployment office is inundated with fraudulent unemployment claims.
On Thursday, ODJFS officials said of the 140,444 new unemployment claims filed between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6 amounted to a 194% increase from the prior week. The majority of the new claims were flagged as potentially fraudulent.
“To date, 44,000 claims have been flagged under suspicion of fraud and are under review,” the agency said in a news release.
The state identified late last year more than $330 million lost to fraud in Ohio unemployment payouts, the agency said last week.
Most of the fraud was in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program which was created to help people such as contractors and part-timers during the pandemic who wouldn’t qualify for traditional unemployment.
The new surge in claims is tied to traditional unemployment.
Governor Mike DeWine said Thursday that it’s a national problem with global players.
“We have people from around the world attempting to defraud the unemployment compensation systems that each state has,” DeWine said.
State officials launched a hotline for people who suspect their identity was improperly used to file for unemployment benefits. The number is (833) 658-0394.