Google UI fraud data and policies

Todd:

ODJFS is in receipt of the below request regarding Unemployment data. We've begun processing this to determine what public records we have responsive to the request.

Please confirm that you've received this. It's been a while since your last request, but I seem to recall having some issues connecting via the MuckRock interface.

Department of Jobs and Family Services
Ohio Open Records Law Office
32nd Floor
30 East Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43215-3414

June 12, 2023

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Ohio Open Records Law, I hereby request the following records:

1) All instruction manuals, handbooks, and policies provided to department employees regarding the use of the department's machine learning unemployment benefits fraud detection system (As described here: https://www.10tv.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/after-paying-out-228-million-in-fraudulent-unemployment-claims-ohio-turns-to-google-others-for-help/530-64ff75b4-a9ef-4a4b-afca-9dbb60036890 and here https://data.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/data/projects/jfs+fighting+covid+fraud).

2) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims the system flagged as having at least one indicator of fraud each week since the department's machine learning unemployment benefits fraud detection system was launched.

3) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were submitted, approved, and denied in each week since Jan. 1, 2018.

4) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were investigated for potential fraud in each week since Jan 1, 2018.

5) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were confirmed as fraudulent after investigation each week since Jan. 1, 2018.

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of it, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

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Bill Teets
Director of Communications
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
(m) 614.403.2331

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This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain private, confidential, and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, employee, or agent responsible for delivering this message, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original e-mail message.

Great!

Good morning, We are working on your request and expect to have a response to you by no later than July 5th, but more likely by the end of this week.

Nicole S. Moss
ODJFS Deputy Chief Counsel

Mr. Feathers, I apologize because I thought I would have records for you today. I am still working on gathering them and will need to do a legal review. I am still hopeful that we will be sending you records by the end of the week.

Nicole S. Moss
ODJFS Deputy Chief Counsel
614.995.0131

Mr. Feathers, I apologize because I underestimated the time that it would take to collect records, conduct a security/legal review and release them. I am still hoping to get you records by the end of this week.

Nicole S. Moss
ODJFS Deputy Chief Counsel
614.995.0131

Mr. Feathers, We are still conducting a legal review on records we hope to provide next week. In the meantime, please find our response to Request #3.

For Request #3: Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were submitted, approved, and denied in each week since Jan. 1, 2018.

* The Department of Labor’s website contains data for all the federal reports Ohio submits. That data is available here: Data Downloads (doleta.gov)<https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/DataDownloads.asp>. This site also includes a general description of the report contents, the data maps and report instructions.

* The following is a list of ETA reports that OUIO believes is closest to the data you seek:

ü The ETA 207 report provides non-monetary determinations issued and how many were denials by quarter for regular UI. There are separate ETA 207 reports for EB and PEUC.

ü The ETA 218 report provides monetary determinations issued and how many had sufficient (allowed) vs insufficient (denied) wage credits by quarter for Regular UI. There are separate ETA 218 reports for EB and PEUC.

ü The ETA 539 report provides weekly initial claims and continued claims for regular UI filed by week but does not include anything about allowed vs denied.

ü The ETA 902 report provides the number of initial applications filed each month and how many applications were determined eligible in each month.

* Please see reports on the LMI website Unemployment Insurance (UI) Claims (ohiolmi.com)<https://ohiolmi.com/home/UIclaims#c2> that provide the closest data sets available given your request:

* UC 207 – Quarterly Determinations, Redeterminations, & Appeal Decisions
* UC 199 – Monthly Activities Under Ohio Law
* UC 236 – Weekly, Monthly, Annual Claims by County

* Please see weekly claims data on the DOL website (Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Data, Employment & Training Administration (ETA) - U.S. Department of Labor (doleta.gov)<https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims.asp> ). This data comes from the ETA 539 reports OUIO files with DOL.

Nicole S. Moss
ODJFS Deputy Chief Counsel
614.995.0131

Dear Mr. Feathers, In response to your public records request, and in addition to the response provided to you on Friday, July 7, 2023, please find our explanations, legal analysis and notes. Separately, you will receive a Dropbox email with responsive records. For clarity's sake, I include your requests and our replies.
1) All instruction manuals, handbooks, and policies provided to department employees regarding the use of the department's machine learning unemployment benefits fraud detection system (As described here: https://www.10tv.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/after-paying-out-228-million-in-fraudulent-unemployment-claims-ohio-turns-to-google-others-for-help/530-64ff75b4-a9ef-4a4b-afca-9dbb60036890<https://www.10tv.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/after-paying-out-228-million-in-fraudulent-unemployment-claims-ohio-turns-to-google-others-for-help/530-64ff75b4-a9ef-4a4b-afca-9dbb60036890> and here https://data.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/data/projects/jfs+fighting+covid+fraud<https://data.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/data/projects/jfs+fighting+covid+fraud>).

No manuals or training materials were created for the fraud dashboard. Likewise, no training manuals were created for the Google dashboard. We will be producing, by Dropbox, training materials provided to staff on Experian and Lexis Nexus ID Proofing. There is a single training video that we are reviewing to ensure it contains no Confidential Personal Information, which is exempted from production as a public record. Once that review is completed, I will be in touch.
2) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims the system flagged as having at least one indicator of fraud each week since the department's machine learning unemployment benefits fraud detection system was launched.

ODJFS has and will provide via Dropbox responsive records as of January 1, 2022, but we do not possess requested records prior to that date, and we are not required to create new records to satisfy this request. State ex rel. White v. Goldsberry, 85 Ohio St.3d 153, 707 N.E.2d 496 (1999).
3) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were submitted, approved, and denied in each week since Jan. 1, 2018.

Although we already provided resources to you regarding this request in our email of July 7, 2023, we respond here with our legal analysis of the same. You asked for documentation regarding which unemployment benefit claims were "approved, and denied in each week since Jan. 1, 2018." To our knowledge the links that we provided do not show approvals or denials. ODJFS also does not have other public records that provide that level of detail. As noted above, ODJFS is not required to create a public record to satisfy this this request. State ex rel. White v. Goldsberry, 85 Ohio St.3d 153, 707 N.E.2d 496 (1999).
4) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were investigated for potential fraud in each week since Jan 1, 2018.

ODJFS does not possess a record that is responsive to this request and is not required to generate such a request. State ex rel. Kerner v. State Teachers Retirement Bd., 82 Ohio St.3d 273, 275, 1998-Ohio-242, 695 N.E.2d 256 (holding that an agency is not required to reprogram computers to comply with a public records request). We note that some of the requested detail can be found at the ETA website that tracks determination information, Data Downloads (doleta.gov)<https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/DataDownloads.asp>. It is in ETA 227, Section B (Number of Cases Investigated).
5) Aggregate, de-identified data showing how many unemployment benefit claims were confirmed as fraudulent after investigation each week since Jan. 1, 2018.

ODJFS does not possess a record that is responsive to this request and is not required to generate such a request. State ex rel. Kerner v. State Teachers Retirement Bd., 82 Ohio St.3d 273, 275, 1998-Ohio-242, 695 N.E.2d 256 (holding that an agency is not required to reprogram computers to comply with a public records request). We note that the ETA 227 report would provide the number of fraud overpayments established by quarter for Regular UI, and there are separate ETA 227 reports for PEUC, MEUC, and FPUC. Similarly, the ETA 902 report would provide the number of fraud overpayments established by month for PUA. As with the ETA 227, there is a separate ETA 902 report for FPUC which includes PUA and FPUC data.

Nicole S. Moss
ODJFS Deputy Chief Counsel
614.995.0131

This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain private, confidential, and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, employee, or agent responsible for delivering this message, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original e-mail message.

This is an automated message sent to you by the FileDrop service.
Moss, Nicole <Nicole.Moss@jfs.ohio.gov> has dropped off 8 files for you.
IF YOU TRUST THE SENDER, and are expecting to receive a file from them, you may choose to retrieve the drop-off by clicking the following link (or copying and pasting it into your web browser):
https://filedrop.cloudfs.ohio.gov/pickup?claimID=VfB92Ax2pRccuMuy&claimPasscode=PRZKYSJzmAboH9UN&emailAddr=64678

You have 7 days to retrieve the drop-off; after that the link above will expire. If you wish to contact the sender, just reply to this email.
The sender has left you a note:
Mr. Feathers, These are the records that I mentioned in my email to you today that would be coming to you that are responsive to your requests.

Nicole S. Moss
Deputy Chief Counsel

Full information about the drop-off:
Claim ID: VfB92Ax2pRccuMuy Claim Passcode: PRZKYSJzmAboH9UN Date of Drop-Off: 2023-07-12 16:27:19
-- Sender --
Name: Moss, Nicole Organization: State of Ohio Email Address: Nicole.Moss@jfs.ohio.gov -- Files --
Name: Experian Phase 5 (1).pdf Size: 243.0 KB SHA-256 Checksum: F0D5B55BB9650FCFC0BB481C70AD721A0E95364C89770FF5A21E7A2FE99A7365 Content Type: application/pdf Name: ID Theft CSR Form (002).pdf Size: 154.8 KB SHA-256 Checksum: 968FC09514CAC7246FAE14041FF3D56BC616D36A64BA446B227CC39F911955BE Content Type: application/pdf Name: OJI Account Take Overs FInal 9-21-2021 (2).pdf Size: 181.4 KB SHA-256 Checksum: 696A444AABAB6035F2C3F020B8EB25729272815BA002A7D8B8430AFED79D192A Content Type: application/pdf Name: PUA Account Take Overs Final 9-27-2021 (2).pdf Size: 141.1 KB SHA-256 Checksum: E594277027E9AD3A9EF2D681F4BADE63E985CE499867EE455A8B50626DB907E6 Content Type: application/pdf Name: QRG.OH.Enhanced Identity Verification Process - PUA Final.pdf Size: 773.7 KB SHA-256 Checksum: 1DB721D5776149C44D2428ADAE5A8605CF3940EDC3DB4B10B832B43B5CD57B01 Content Type: application/pdf Name: QRG_OJI Claimant SSN Verification_Final.pdf Size: 692.1 KB SHA-256 Checksum: 8AF8FC1EF1EB428FC5F46E02FA833B1BD77ED9FB1F5398112A56162CEDCDE6B1 Content Type: application/pdf Name: Setting a Fraud Issue_Job Aid OJI (1).pdf Size: 1.4 MB SHA-256 Checksum: 76BD366FB61A4D027598466FA16A811184DBD19569AD5ED49C647A8794222F61 Content Type: application/pdf Name: Weekly Flagged Initial Claims.xlsx Size: 16.7 KB SHA-256 Checksum: E7101C9A53208F2EC26116546BEDCC1D82B9D19222F0B94F3CF7D64F795F1408 Content Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet

This is an automated message sent to you by the FileDrop service.
Moss, Nicole <Nicole.Moss@jfs.ohio.gov> has dropped off a file for you.
IF YOU TRUST THE SENDER, and are expecting to receive a file from them, you may choose to retrieve the drop-off by clicking the following link (or copying and pasting it into your web browser):
https://filedrop.cloudfs.ohio.gov/pickup?claimID=ec6kw7uvkdKtamau&claimPasscode=GyYHZubdB6SBuY48&emailAddr=64815

You have 7 days to retrieve the drop-off; after that the link above will expire. If you wish to contact the sender, just reply to this email.
The sender has left you a note:
Mr. Feathers, This is the last responsive record that is responsive to request number 1. I previously mentioned in my email to you of July 12, 2023 that we were reviewing this record. We have now completed this review and providing the record to you. This also completes our entire response to your public records request.

Nicole S. Moss
Deputy Chief Counsel, ODJFS

Full information about the drop-off:
Claim ID: ec6kw7uvkdKtamau Claim Passcode: GyYHZubdB6SBuY48 Date of Drop-Off: 2023-07-14 09:24:24
-- Sender --
Name: Moss, Nicole Organization: State of Ohio Email Address: Nicole.Moss@jfs.ohio.gov -- File --
Name: Claimant SSN Verification Process v3.mp4 Size: 29.3 MB SHA-256 Checksum: 00D795E4288EADD2D98F7D70E56C78698306442EF31EF4897FC57D9644B61387 Content Type: video/mp4

"Good morning,

I checked the information in the email chain and it appears that a user utilized a file drop service we run to send you some data. And you received an email for pick up of the dropped off data. It appears that the reply email address from that drop off message is replying to the incorrect team, as the reply email is to the storage service that the person used to send you the data.

So it looks like you are trying to reach back out to Nicole, but your emails are coming to our team instead.

Thanks,

Clayton Carver

Information Technology Manager, Infrastructure Services

Office of Information Technology

D: 614.728.7160

Clayton.Carver@das.ohio.gov"

Mr. Feathers, Please find enclosed our previous responses to your public record request as of June 12, 2023.

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Nicole S. Moss
Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Legal Services
D: 614.995.0131

She/hers

Mr. Feathers, In response to follow-up question number 1, I provided you the data for 2022 in an excel spreadsheet that was sent by FileDrop on 7/13. However, please find another copy in pdf format attached here to. I also provide the data for 2021. I was initially told we did not have that data, but we were able to produce it by modifying a query. I apologize that I wasn't aware of that option when I responded in July.

As for the second follow-up question, I can confirm that the data I have provided in response to your request are equivalent to the "flagged for further verification" data contained in the weekly "Ohio Jobless Claims" news releases posted on jfs.ohio.gov.

We are still working on your most recent public records request and hope to have a response to you early next week.

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Nicole S. Moss
Deputy Chief Counsel, Office of Legal Services
D: 614.995.0131

She/Her

This e-mail, together with any attachments or files transmitted with it, may contain confidential information belonging to the sender, or constitute non-public information that is not subject to disclosure under O.R.C. Section 149.43, Ohio's Public Records Act. Additionally, if the sender is an employee of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, this e-mail, together with any attachments or files transmitted with it, may contain information that is protected by the attorney-client privilege or other applicable privileges. The information in this e-mail is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the named addressee, you should not disseminate, distribute, or copy this e-mail. If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail and delete this e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient, do not disclose, copy, distribute, or re-distribute this e-mail or take any action in reliance on the contents of the information contained in this e-mail. Nothing contained in this notice by itself exempts, nor should it be interpreted to by itself exempt, this e-mail from disclosure as a public record upon the proper submission of a request for public records pursuant to O.R.C. Section 149.43, Ohio's Public Records Act.

P Please consider the environment before printing this email.

Good afternoon Mr. Feathers,

On behalf of the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission (UCRC), we are declining your interview request of a commissioner at this time, but feel free to submit questions to me via email. ODJFS assists the Commission with some administration functions, such as media relations, because they are an administrative law appellate entity. Therefore, they cannot comment on appeals before it.

The Commission is happy to reply to written questions as long as these questions do not jeopardize due process or federal/state law confidentiality.

Kindest regards,
Tom Betti

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Tom Betti
Public Information Program Administrator, Office of Communications
30 East Broad Street, 32nd Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215
D: 614.728.9645

This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain private, confidential, and/or privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, employee, or agent responsible for delivering this message, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original e-mail message.