NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Criminals are hacking into people's accounts who are filing for unemployment and trying to steal their money.
"They changed things like my password and changed my security question," Lorilee Bell, who has been unemployed for the last year, said.
She's just one of the dozens of people whose account with the state has been hacked, leaving them unable to claim their benefits.
"It's scary because what happens if I can't claim this week? Then what's going to happen," said Bell.
Officials with the Tennessee Department of Labor said they first started hearing about these hacks in January after the weekly benefit amount people could receive from the government went up to $300.
"Do you see why people are frustrated? They want this fixed, and they feel like it's not being fixed fast enough. It's very difficult to maneuver and difficult to manage. It's almost impossible to detect unless the claimant tells us something has happened to their account," Chris Cannon with the Tennessee Department of Labor said.
Another woman on Facebook claimed she was hacked three times, and someone even went as far as to log into her account and put their debit card in.
"They really need to get on the ball and fix this problem," said Bell.
The state said it's doing everything it can to fix this for those affected as quickly as possible. In the meantime, people should be careful where they log in to their accounts and never do it use public Wi-Fi. If a person's account was hacked, they will receive whatever payments they missed.
If your account has been compromised, people are asked to email BPC.Investigations@tn.gov.