Someone stole my identity for ny unemployment benefits and now IRS wants me to pay taxes on it

Oh man that sux. The same thing happend to me but with my state tax refund. Someone filed before me and got my refund. It took me nearly 6 months to get it sorted out with the state. For your situation, you need to contact the IRS ASAP and let them know about the identity theft. They have a specific form for this - I think its Form 14039 Identity Theft Affidavit. Also file a police report locally and get a copy of it. Thats what the IRS told me to do.

After fighting with ny unemployment for 2 months and getting nowhere, I finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that got me a callback from an actual rep within 30 minutes. It was the best decision I made through this whole nightmare. I explained my identity theft situation to the agent and they were able to flag my account properly and get me connected to their fraud department. They helped me file the correct paperwork so the IRS knows I never received those benefits. Getting through to a live person changed everything. Here's a video that explains how it works: https://youtu.be/Rdqa1gKtxuE

Contact the IRS and NY DOL fraud department immediately. This is serious identity theft. Request a PIN from the IRS for all future tax filings to prevent this from happening again. Also check your credit reports to see if the thief has opened other accounts in your name. This happened to my cousin and it was a NIGHTMARE to fix.

I would also recommend filing a police report ASAP. You're gonna need documentation of everything. The more paper trail you have the better when it comes to fighting this. Take screenshots of everything too. My brother went thru this last summer and having the police report helped him with both the DOL and the IRS.

This exact thing happened to me!!!! I found out someone was claiming benefits using my info when I got a 1099-G form. I had to file an identity theft report with unemployment, the IRS, and the FTC. Go to identitytheft.gov right now and follow their step-by-step process. It will create an affidavit you can send to everyone. I also froze my credit at all three bureaus because who knows what else they might do with your info.

you need to act fast cuz tax deadline coming up! contact IRS immediately and tell them u never got that money! freeze ur credit reports too (experian, equifax, transunion). Then go to DOL website and look for their fraud reporting form. When this happened to my wife she couldn't even get anyone on the phone 4 like 3 weeks so she ended up using that claimyr service everyone talks about and finally got thru to a person.

LAWYER UP!!! This is straight identity theft and fraud. Call your local bar association and ask for a referral for an attorney who handles identity theft cases. Many will give you a free consultation. Don't try to handle this alone - the government agencies will give you the runaround forever if you don't have someone advocating for you who knows the system.

This is super common in New York right now. I work in HR and we've had 7 employees deal with this exact situation in the past year. Here's what you need to do: 1. File an identity theft report with the FTC at identitytheft.gov 2. Contact the IRS directly at 800-908-4490 (their dedicated ID theft line) 3. File a police report locally 4. Contact all three credit bureaus and place a fraud alert on your credit 5. File a fraud report directly with NYSDOL at their website 6. Get a copy of your wage and income transcript from the IRS to prove what your actual income was Documentation is your best friend here. Keep notes on every call you make and every person you speak with. This will take time to resolve, but it's fixable. If you have trouble reaching a live person at NY unemployment (and you will!), try using claimyr.com - several of our employees had success with it when they couldn't get through the regular phone lines.

I hate ny unemployment with a passion. Their security is a joke. Had a similar issue (not identical) where someone somehow accessed my account and changed my direct deposit info. I lost 2 weeks of payments before I caught it. The ONLY way I got it resolved was by spam calling for 3 days straight until I finally got through to a human.

NYS Department of Labor has a specific form for reporting 1099-G tax form fraud. Google "NYS DOL 1099-G fraud" and you'll find it. Fill that out ASAP and then follow up with a call. You're not alone - there's been a huge spike in these cases since COVID started.

this happened to my roomate!!! he got a letter saying he owed taxes on like 9k of benefits but he never applied! took him forever to fix it but he finally did. key was getting on the phone with DOL fraud unit. he couldn't get thru for weeks then used claimyr.com and got a callback same day. said it was the only thing that worked after trying for days. the website says they just auto-dial over and over and connect you when someone answers.

The real crime here is how bad their security is. My wife works in cybersecurity and says NY unemployment has some of the worst security practices she's ever seen for a government system handling sensitive data. It's no wonder identity theft is rampant. Good luck OP, hope you get it sorted out without too much headache.

Anybody else notice how much worse NY unemployment's website and security got during covid? It's like they rushed to scale up and just forgot about basic security. The number of fraud cases is insane. I feel for you OP, my sister had to deal with this last year.

This is why I check my credit report religiously now. Too many scammers out there. I'd recommend signing up for credit monitoring ASAP if you haven't already. And freeze your credit reports so no one can open new accounts in your name.

I went through this EXACT same situation last year! It was a nightmare but I did get it resolved. Here's what worked for me: I requested a meeting with my state representative's office. Their constituent services team has direct contacts at both the DOL and IRS. They helped expedite everything and got me a corrected 1099-G form within weeks when I had been getting nowhere for months. Don't underestimate the power of getting your elected officials involved!

I'm an accountant and I've helped several clients with this exact issue. DO NOT PAY TAXES on benefits you didn't receive! Make sure you file your tax return correctly - don't include the fraudulent 1099-G amount. Attach a statement explaining the situation and that you've filed an identity theft report. The IRS is well aware of this problem and has procedures in place. Just make sure you follow the proper channels to report it.

Honestly the NY unemployment system is completley broken. I've never in my life seen such an outdated and vulnerable system. The fact that someone else can just use your SSN and the system doesn't even verify basic identity info is criminal. I wish you luck OP, you've got a tough battle ahead but from what I've read most people do eventually get these issues resolved.

yall notice how much worse this is getting? my whole facebook feed is people dealing with unemployment fraud lately 😩 something big is happening with identity theft rings

Hey, ID theft investigator here. I don't normally post but your situation is unfortunately common. Beyond what others have suggested (FTC report, IRS contact, etc.) make sure you're documenting EVERYTHING. Take screenshots of the account with the wrong info, save all emails and letters, and record details of every phone call (date, time, who you spoke with, what was discussed). This documentation will be crucial if this drags on or if you need to escalate further. Also, check if your employer offers any identity protection services as a benefit - many do now.