Woman battles diagnosis of terminal illness, unemployment fraud

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    NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR/KAUT) — A Norman woman battling a terminal illness is also battling unemployment fraud.

She’s been laid off and her condition makes it extremely difficult to find safe work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jenny Johnson has pulmonary fibrosis and COPD. Doctors say she’s only got three to five years to live.

To make matters worse, she says she can’t even afford housing on her own.

“Thankfully, I have really good parents who help me out,” Johnson said. “They’ve been helping me out tremendously and I really, really appreciate that. Other than that, I couldn’t survive.”

Tears of frustration and heartbreak fell from Jenny Johnson’s eyes Tuesday. She is worn out emotionally and physically after being in the hospital just last week.

“I had shortness of breath, my oxygen level was at 80%,” she said.

She’s a fighter, not just for her health but also for money owed to her since she was laid off in June.

Johnson tried to file for unemployment but says someone was already filing under her name.

“This was the money that was on a card,” she said, showing transaction records. “I got it stopped finally and got it sent to me. So I took it off right away because I didn’t want somebody else to get a hold of it.

In total, she says someone has received $2,500 in funds fraudulently.

“But this all, she’s received and I was working on those dates,” Johnson said while going over records. “Whoever is doing this to me, you’re a piece of crap. Sorry but you are.”

She’s hustled hard for answers; countless calls, redirects and unreturned emails sent to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

“It’s been dead end, dead end, dead end,” Johnson said.

Her condition makes it dangerous for her to maintain a job during this pandemic, leaving her begging for a little help and understanding in a tough time for so many.

“We’re the State of Oklahoma,” she said. “We’re supposed to be love and caring and [compassionate.] What happened to that? I haven’t seen it. In my situation, I haven’t seen it.”

Officials with the OESC said they are looking into Johnson’s situation.

Unemployment fraud is both a national and Oklahoma problem, and the recent unprecedented legitimate unemployment claims have unfortunately sparked an increase in fraudulent activity. OESC has partnered with the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office and implemented a streamlined process for reporting fraudulent unemployment claims. Oklahomans can go to my.ok.gov/Forms/Report%20Unemployment%20Fraud and complete the online form if they have had an unemployment claim filed in their name or SSN. The information submitted on this form is shared between OESC, the Attorney General’s office, and OSBI, so citizens no longer need to fill out multiple forms for different agencies. If someone receives a card for unemployment, and shouldn’t have, or needs to receive one and hasn’t or funds are missing, they should contact our vendor Conduent’s fraud department at 866-320-8699. Please note Conduent will never ask for an individual’s social security number or PIN number.

It is important to note, the fraudulent claims are not a breach of the OESC database. In most cases the information used to file the fraudulent claim was stolen as a result of the Experian data breach in 2017 or one of the breaches that occurred at financial institutions in preceding years.”

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