CHARLESTON — WorkForce West Virginia warns a fraudulent texting scam has been launched throughout West Virginia and the nation.

WorkForce officials say people are receiving text alerts with the following message:

“Your West Virginia Unemployment Insurance Claim account is currently on hold for verification, Please complete your verification by following the instructions in the link below to reactivate your account”

Text messages such as this one are fraud and should not be responded to our clicked. The website included is also fraudulent and designed to look like the WorkForce website. WorkForce West Virginia does NOT send text messages to claimants.

“Unfortunately, this is an issue unemployment offices throughout the country have dealt with more frequently since the beginning of the pandemic. The WorkForce West Virginia fraud unit is working as swiftly as possible to stop this fraudulent text message from reaching more people,” said Scott Adkins, commissioner of WorkForce West Virginia. “It is very important to note that WorkForce never communicates with claimants by text.”

The WorkForce fraud unit is cooperating with authorities and determined the source of this activity to be out of Iceland.

For more information, to report fraud, schedule a call with a WorkForce representative or access the online claimant system visit www.workforcewv.org.