TOLEDO, Ohio — Scammers are taking advantage of those out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic. A new scam is targeting businesses with employees looking to file for unemployment.
Carol Madson, owner of Dayspring Cleaning, said she received a phone call from a California number claiming to be from the unemployment office.
"What they wanted was personal information of some of my employees to process unemployment, " she said.
The caller tried to get Madson to provide more info for the office to process her employees' unemployment claims.
"Full names things of that nature and then they also wanted my tax type numbers," Madson said.
When Madson tried to ask more questions, the caller just hung up.
The Better Business Bureau said this isn't the first scam to come out of this health crisis.
"We've seen scams of all kinds," CEO Dick Eppstein said. "We've got phony vaccinations, phony viruses. We've seen the scam advertising for masks."
Epstein said this is particularly troubling as so many Americans are filing for unemployment.
"You get a message like this and it wants to know any kind of information, call the local unemployment office and say did you guys work with someone in California and are you needing this from me," he added.
Epstein stressed never give anything over the phone. If you're unsure, it's likely a scam. Madson is warning other businesses to be on the lookout.
"The nature of the world we're living in today if you get anything that you're not comfortable with," she said, "I wouldn't give any of this information over the phone."
