As Hundreds of Thousands of Consumers Continue To Face Unemployment Insurance Scams, TransUnion to Partner with State Governments to Mitigate These Fraud Risks

CHICAGO, Feb. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported 6.5 million consumers were unemployed at the end of January. In addition to facing the challenges of not being employed, TransUnion’s (NYSE: TRU) ongoing U.S. Consumer Pulse study* found that in February 2022 unemployment insurance scams impacted 10% of adults who reported being targeted with digital fraud in the last three months.

Younger generations reported higher incidents of such scams – 15% of Gen Z and 12% of Millennials. The study found that 38% of Americans said they’ve been targeted with digital fraud in the last three months.

As fraudsters continue to target unemployed consumers, TransUnion is preparing to help state unemployment insurance systems improve identity verification and strengthen fraud detection. TransUnion was recently awarded a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) from the United States Department of Labor, which allows the company to provide its services.

“Unemployment insurance fraud is impacting citizens across the country and we are proud to be helping states modernize their unemployment insurance systems,” said Jonathan McDonald, executive vice president and head of TransUnion’s public sector business. “The insights derived from our solutions allow government stakeholders, be it federal, state or local, to serve their constituents more quickly and effectively.”

TransUnion will have the opportunity to work with interested states to implement its flagship identity proofing, risk-based authentication and fraud analytics solution suite – TransUnion TruValidate – into their respective unemployment insurance systems. TruValidate unites personal and digital data into one of the most comprehensive data identity platforms in the world, detecting threats across markets while ensuring friction-right user experiences.

Since 2020, TransUnion has instituted a three-phased approach to help states get on track to paying claims to those in need. The approach includes:

1. Triage current backlog of suspended claims — Clear good claims and focus on actual fraud.
2. Implement new online identity and device verification — Improve accuracy of applications before they’re submitted.
3. Review existing claims for authenticity — Ensure benefits continue to reach those who qualify.
   

“We’ve taken the issue of unemployment insurance fraud seriously since the beginning of the pandemic, and we believe TransUnion is well positioned to help states quickly solve this problem,” concluded McDonald.

Further details about unemployment fraud trends are available in the following blog. More information about TransUnion’s public sector business can be found here.

*Data from the Consumer Pulse study included responses from 2,949 U.S. adults between Feb. 7-Feb. 15, 2022.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/publicsector