Good morning, it’s Mike Holfeld with another edition of Make Ends Meet for Aug. 18.
Well, it looks like the “force reset” security strategy that left thousands of Connect account holders blocked from their unemployment accounts is slowly getting resolved.
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The thing is, there were variations to the “mission accomplished” moment. Some claimants received email notifications to walk them through the process while others used their old PIN codes to get in without having to reset a thing.
The reemployment team for the Department of Economic Opportunity is reviewing the accounts to figure out why the old PINs were working, but as of this newsletter there is no explanation.
If you are still having a problem with a PIN reset, send me your claimant number or the last four digits of your Social Security number to makeendsmeet@wkmg.com or text Make End Meet to 407-676-7428.
Make Ends Meet will send your account to the DEO for review.
Hackers on the hunt 🕵️♀️
DEO Communications Director Emilie Oglesby tells me fraudsters are targeting DEO accounts non-stop.
As we told you last week, 70% of the unemployment claims filed last month were filed by hijackers.
To put it all into perspective for you, over 160,000 unemployment claims were filed in July and exactly 113,462 of those claims were filed by imposters intercepted by the DEO Fraud Division.
Secret Service on the case 📛
The Orlando Secret Service Cyber Task Force led by Special-Agent in Charge Caroline Obrien-Buster is tracking “hundreds of thousands” in stolen funds every week.
Special Agent Matt Britsch tells me this is a battle the secret service has been fighting for 18 months.
Britsch says in Central Florida alone “it is a continuing problem, seemingly getting worse, not better by the month.”
Britsch says “it’s very frustrating and time consuming” not only for the Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies but also the FDIC banks that are seeing unusual activity in accounts set up by international cyber thieves to pipe unemployment funds out of the country.
Help is available online 🖱️
The PIN reset guide includes directions to reset credentials to access and assist with other login issues.
DEO recommends that claimants use the updated Reemployment Assistance Help Center resource to notify the Department of any issues relating to their CONNECT account. Concerns submitted through this resource are routed quickly to appropriate DEO team members to review and assist
The proposed legislation would stop “eviction during disasters.”
This week, U.S. Rep. Val Demings introduced the Federal Disaster Housing Stability Act of 2021. The legislation would apply an “automatic eviction moratorium” to all rental properties and a foreclosure moratorium to all federally backed mortgages for locations under a federal declaration of an emergency. U.S. Rep. Al Lawson of Florida is co-leading this legislation and the bill is supported by the National Housing Law Project and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.