WARNING: Phone scammers acting as GDOL employees

ATLANTA, Ga. — The Georgia Department of Labor is warning residents statewide of scammers attempting to steal personal information over the phone.

Several reports filed have indicated the scammers are calling people and claiming they are employees of the GDOL.

Callers receive an automated call that indicates their social security number has been compromised and are instructed to press a button to speak with a representative.

The calls appear as if they are coming from the GDOL, but they are not.

The GDOL is not calling residents to address potential fraud. If a person receives an automated call, they should be aware it could be a scam.

The GDOL never asks for a complete social security number to identify a resident, and if a GDOL representative does contact a resident, that representative already has all the resident’s account details and will not have to ask for specific identifying information.

Anyone who has received a scam call is asked to contact the Federal Trade Commission to report the potential identity theft at https://www.identitytheft.gov/?utm_source=takeaction.

Victims should also consider filing a report with their police department.

“This is just another example of how bad actors are slowing down the unemployment benefit process for Georgians,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said. “These tricks are being attempted all over the nation, and we must be vigilant to not fall victim to these criminals.”

If a person needs to verify their identity with the GDOL, they will be directed to ID.me, the agency’s nationally recognized partner for identity verification.

The GDOL is working with a special task force made up of state and federal agencies to stop these scams.

To help identify potential fraud with a person’s unemployment income account, the GDOL encourages reporting fraud and abuse on the agency’s homepage under Online Services at www.dol.state.ga.us.

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