Scammers impersonating company hired by North Carolina to verify the ID of the unemployed

Diane Wilson Image
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Scammers target unemployed in NC
Be skeptical of people reaching out to you on social media offering to help.

More problems for the company hired in North Carolina to cut down on unemployment fraud.

For weeks, ABC11 has been telling you about the company ID.me, and the delays the unemployed in North Carolina are facing when it comes to verifying their identity through ID.me.

In order for unemployment benefits to continue, consumers first must confirm their identity with ID.me. Because of long wait times, and failure to verify with ID.me, some viewers had their benefits delayed for weeks.

Because of the delays in that identification process, scammers are capitalizing on people waiting by messaging them on social media impersonating ID.me.

An ABC11 viewer shared messages with Troubleshooter Diane Wilson received on social media from a man claiming to be with ID.me.

Thinking he was with ID.me, the viewer provided some personal information. Seeing an opening, the scammer then texted trying to get even more personal information so he could "get her approved for benefits."

Beware: Scammers are trolling the comments on social media and responding, claiming they can help.

ID.me says, "Unfortunately, criminals are taking advantage of honest people through social media by impersonating ID.me employees/support agents. They're attempting to access people's sensitive personal information. We want your viewers to know that ID.me will only ever interact with people through our official, verified social media pages."

The ONLY pages ID.me interacts with users on are:

A representative with ID.me adds, "Our security team works around the clock with Facebook and Twitter to shut these imposter pages down, but fraudsters are constantly popping up with new accounts. We are continuing to dedicate time and resources to stopping these bad actors. As we fight many forms of fraud on a daily basis, we ask our users to remain patient and diligent when requesting support through social media. We understand many folks are frustrated and in-need, and our absolute top priority is helping legitimate users that need assistance."