'A terrible reverse lottery,' says Los Angeles victim of employment identity theft — what do to if it happens to you

When you think of identity theft, you likely worry about thieves draining your savings accounts or racking up debt on credit cards taken out in your name. You probably don’t imagine someone trying to get their hands on your Social Security number simply to work.

But that’s what happened to 46-year-old Los Angeles resident Dr. Warris Bokhari (1).

After receiving 2025 tax forms from a company he hadn’t worked for, Bokhari was left with a financial and administrative headache.

It’s like “a terrible reverse lottery,” he told CNBC (2), “Your identity can be used by someone else for their gains, and you’re left with bills and debts that you try to undo.”

Employment identity theft takes place when someone steals your personal information, including your Social Security number, in order to get a job and earn income. It could be someone who cannot otherwise legally work or a job seeker that has trouble getting through employer background checks (3). Either way, once their income is reported to the IRS, victims, like Bokhari, end up getting the tax bill.

As Bokhari told CNBC, in February, he received a Form 1099-K from Uber Technologies listing about $2,300 in gross income for work in November and December of 2025. The trouble is, Bokhari, the cofounder and CEO of health care technology firm Claimable, says he’d never driven for the ride-sharing service.

After weeks of trying to get answers, Uber support informed him they’d “found signs of identity theft,” according to a message reviewed by CNBC (4).

In a statement directly to the news outlet, the company said, “We’re aware that some people have reported receiving 1099s despite not driving or earning income with Uber, which may indicate their personal information was used fraudulently,” adding that a webpage has been set up specifically for “1099 delivery error” inquiries (5).

Bokhani is by no means alone in his discovery of “phantom income,” as he put it to CNBC.

Employment or wage-related fraud is on the rise in the U.S. According to identity theft tracking by the Federal Trade Commission, 35,937 cases were reported in 2025, a 49.6% increase since 2021, when a total of 24,009 cases were reported (6).

It took Bokhani three weeks, and a lot of pestering, he told CNBC, to get Uber to issue him a new $0-income 1099-K and update the IRS accordingly.

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In most cases, victims of employment identity theft don’t know they’re victims until a tax document from a company they don’t work for arrives. Incorrect and unexpected Form W-2 or 1099’s are obvious red flags.

If you’ve received one of those forms from an unknown employer, the IRS (7) advises you do the following:

Don’t include the income on your tax return, and don’t file an amended tax return.
Immediately notify the Social Security Administration, who will review your earnings and update their records accordingly.
Consider submitting a Form 14039 (8), Identity Theft Affidavit, to the agency online or by mail.
Place a one-year fraud alert on your credit report with the three major bureaus: Equifax, Experian and Trans Union.
File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, and review their identity theft recovery tips (9).

To protect yourself from the same type of fraud again, you can sign up for E-Verify (10), a government program that allows you to “lock” your Social Security number, making employers verify that a job applicant is actually you, and not someone fraudulently using your identity to get the job.

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CNBC (1),(2),(4); Equifax (3); Uber (5); Federal Trade Commission (6); Internal Revenue Service (7),(8); IdentityTheft.gov (9); E-Verify (10)

This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: ‘A terrible reverse lottery,’ says Los Angeles victim of employment identity theft — what do to if it happens to you

This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.