TO: ALL LOCAL UNIONS, BUSINESS REPRESENTIATVES & ORGANIZERS
FROM: Gary Perinar, EST
Over the past few days, Nicholas Cortesi (Union Legal Services) has received numerous telephone calls from  members stating that someone has wrongfully filed an unemployment claim on their behalf at the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Please notify your members that this type of fraud should be treated as Identity theft and these are some of the steps they need to follow:
- File a report at their local police department;
- File an online complaint with the Illinois Department of Employment Security: https://www2.illinois.gov/ides/Pages/UI_Fraud_by_Individuals.aspx
- File an online complaint with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office: https://illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/about/email_ag.jsp
- File an online complaint with the Federal Trade Commission: https://www.ftc.gov/faq/consumer-protection/submit-consumer-complaint-ftc
- Sign-up with a credit monitoring service such as Identity-IQ or Life-Lock to monitor their credit reports/scores.
If a member has additional questions, please have them contact Nicholas Cortesi at 877-694-2663.
Nicholas J. Cortesi
Attorney at Law/Principal
Union Legal Services, LLC
33 N. Dearborn St., 10th Fl.
Chicago, Illinois 60602
877-694-2663