Tulsa Company Claims Scammers Used Their Name For Unemployment Filings

A Tulsa company said scammers are using their company's name and information to file for unemployment benefits with the state.

Aircraft Accessories of Oklahoma said they only have 34 employees but in the past several weeks, they've gotten notice of more than a hundred unemployment claims from the state made by people using fake names.

Dorothy Singleton is their bookkeeper and having to do additional duties to keep up.

The Tulsa based company has received notices from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission that scammers are claiming to have been laid off from the company to file for unemployment benefits.

But Singleton said they haven't had to lay off anybody and the names being used have never even worked there.

I know every employee name because I do payroll each week," said Singleton.

Unemployment scams have ramped up in recent months across the state as more people file legitimate claims.

The OESC said out of about 500,000 unemployment applications so far, about 200,000 have been rejected because of either fraud or they didn’t meet the criteria.

The interim director tells us they saw a 73 percent reduction in fraud claims last week, as they ramp up efforts to stop it.

But Singleton said they're still getting a lot of false claims.

"Starting on May 1st we received only 2 and then from then on it just increased and increased. On the second we got 24, on the 8th of June, we got 33 and today we have 23 I have to report, so they're all right here," said Singleton.

Singleton goes through the notices and sends them back to the OESC to inform them the claims are fraudulent.

She just hopes those who get need the payments can get it.