Meant to Combat ID Theft, Unemployment Benefits Letter Prompts ID Theft Worries

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Bytram:

Meant to Combat ID Theft, Unemployment Benefits Letter Prompts ID Theft Worries:

My first thought when a reader shared a copy of the letter was that he recently had been the victim of identity theft. It took a fair amount of digging online to discover that the nebulously named "Cardholder Services" address in Florida referenced at the top of the letter is an address exclusively used by U.S. Bank.

That digging indicated U.S. Bank currently manages the disbursement of funds for unemployment programs in at least 17 states, including Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The funds are distributed through a prepaid debit card called ReliaCard.

To make matters more confusing, the flood of new unemployment applications from people out of work thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic reportedly has overwhelmed U.S. Bank's system, meaning that many people receiving these letters haven't yet gotten their ReliaCard and thus lack any frame of reference for having applied for a new payment card.

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