California legislators urge for emergency audit of EDD

In a very unusual move California legislators, who are off session till January, have come together to call for an emergency audit of the California Employment Development Department (EDD).
    
FOX 11’s Christina Gonzalez has been following up on the complaints; many coming from FOX 11 viewers who are helping us share their stories.

Even though they are on break till January the Chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, assemblymember Rudy Salas, officially requested an emergency request to audit the Employment Development Department.

Aside from problems with missing unemployment payments, lack of phone operators and just plain chaos that has left over a million California residents in unemployment limbo, thousands of EDD letters, some of them with bank cards, are being delivered to wrong addressees. Seemingly as part of some type of large scale fraud.

RELATED: Claims of fraud multiply at California EDD

USPS agents are helping EDD investigators track down the criminals. They are asking those who receive EDD letters to do the following:

1) Write “does not live here" on the envelopes, but do NOT leave them in your mailbox if it’s not secured with a lock or on the floor of mail rooms in apartment or business buildings. 

2) Give them back to the mail delivery person or take them to the local post office. Leave them with a person or put inside it in the mail chute. 

3) If someone comes to your door asking for their EDD mail tell them you haven’t gotten it, and ask to contact them later if it does. Call the post office with the information and surveillance security photos of the people if you have a security system like Ring. 

4) You can go to edd.ca.gov to file a report, or call their toll free hotline at 800-229-6297.

5) The US Postal Inspection Service has a toll free hotline to report, 1-877-876-2455, you can also report fraud uspis.gov