PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — If you live in Pennsylvania and you're receiving unemployment compensation benefits, the state treasurer has a warning for you. Criminals are going after your money using a fake texting scam.
Pennsylvania State Treasurer Stacy Garrity explained the scam, saying one message inaccurately tells recipients that their state-issued ReliaCard account, also known as a prepaid debit card, has been temporarily frozen.
It then encourages them to click on a link to verify their identity and card status.
Garrity says the link is the scam, and not to click on the link.
The scam targets people collecting regular unemployment benefits, pandemic unemployment assistance as well as federal unemployment.
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Garrity said neither the Pennsylvania Treasury or the Department of Labor and Industry would ever embed a link in a text message. Any text that includes a link and claims to be from those agencies is not authentic and should not be trusted.
Her tip is to never provide any personally identifiable information, user IDs, or passwords unless you initiated a conversation by contacting the agency directly.
ReliaCards are one way to receive unemployment benefits and are issued by U.S. Bank as prepaid debit cards.
Both the Department of Labor and Industry and the Pennsylvania Treasury have detailed information, including a page devoted to fraud issues and an FAQ about fraud.
