 TITLE: Unemployment Scams to Watch Out For CONTENT: Can an Unemployment Scam Affect Your Credit?\n--------------------------------------------\nNeither your income nor its source—including unemployment benefits issued to you or those collected by criminals in your name—appear on your credit reports, so it cannot influence your credit score.\nThere's a major way an unemployment benefits scam can affect your credit indirectly, however: If you apply for unemployment and criminals have already filed a claim in your name, there will likely be a delay in your ability to collect your benefits. (Staff at your local unemployment office—likely overworked with the high volume of COVID-19-related claims—will need to investigate, close the bogus account, and so on.) You'll eventually get the benefits to which you're entitled, but if you miss any debt payments before that happens, that could have a significant negative effect on your credit score.\nAlso note that criminals who have enough of your personal information to file a false unemployment claim likely have the credentials they'd need to open new credit accounts in the future. It's therefore critical to continue checking your credit reports for unexplained activity (reports of credit inquiries you can't identify, new accounts you didn't open, and so on). It's also worth considering using a credit monitoring service (such as the one Experian offers for free) and taking other steps such as placing a fraud alert on your credit report. A fraud alert will ask creditors to confirm your identity before processing loan applications made in your name. END