WILDWOOD, Texas — Since March, more than 3 million Texans have filed for unemployment which can be a tedious process.
But one woman says even though she didn't file a claim, she still received a debit card from the state of Texas.
On July 21, Emily Matthews went to the post office in Wildwood and found a benefits card for unemployment/child support from the TWC.
"It came specifically in my name...it's just odd," Matthews said. "What's going on, why did I get this?"
Her first concerns were her identity and family.
Did someone file falsely using her information?
To find out the answer, 12News reached out to a spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission.
Cisco Gamez says historically, when there is a disaster (pandemic in this case) the TWC does get hit harder with identity theft.
"Over 2500 identity theft fraudulent claims. That's 0.06% of claims," Gamez said.
It's a small percentage from the more than 4.1 million total claims that have been made thus far since mid-March but Gamez says "Definitely a big deal for people who may have their identity or unemployment benefits stolen."
Fraudulent activity is why Matthews immediately locked her credit reports and started making calls to find out how this happened.
"Just the frustrating part of it is not being able to get in touch with anybody to get any kind of verification," Matthews said.
She says she's experiencing the same issue as others who are just trying to simply file a claim.
"I've tried to call the workforce fraud and abuse hotline, but nobody answers," Matthews said.
Eventually she did get a person on the other line, who told her that they didn't find any claim using her info.
So why did this happen?
"I won't be able to speak on behalf of her particular claim or what's going on in her situation," Gamez said.
Gamez didn't have the answer, but does remind people what to look out for when it comes to the TWC claims.
"They would never ask you about your credit card number or mention any fee associated with your claim and a specialist would never ask about your whole bank account number," Gamez said.
Matthews tells 12News she is happy to know her information hasn't been stolen, but still has questions.
A strange scenario given that her husband, who did apply for benefits, still hasn't received any type of payment.