Our Central Ohio Community Outreach Coordinator had a Springfield Masonic Community member in Independent Living who received a letter that contained a 1099G from ODJFS. It said that he had received over $1,200 in unemployment benefits that he had to repay.  He was unsure why he had received this form since he had never collected unemployment and could not get ahold of anyone at the phone number listed on letter.

Our coordinator tried calling the number on the letter but was in a queue that was a 50 minute wait and then went to 61 minutes, so he went online to the ODJFS website which informed folks about a scam where these letters had been sent out through their office.  There were directions to visit the Ohio Unemployment website and submit a report of someone using client’s personal information to submit a fraudulent unemployment claim. They in turn will close the file and submit a new form to the IRS letting them know the client never received unemployment.

We submitted the request form for the resident and were able to get things taken care of for him.  The resident was very relieved and very appreciative of the help.