International fraud ring steals millions from US unemployment funds
A Nigerian fraud ring has reportedly swiped millions of
dollars in unemployment benefits — funds meant to help out-of-work Americans.
The complex and widespread theft scheme used stolen identity
data from citizens, including social security numbers, to file false claims on
behalf of workers who may not even have lost their jobs, according to a New
York Times report.
Federal authorities believe most of the phony claims have
been filed in the state of Washington, though evidence suggests similar attacks
in six other states: Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode
Island and Wyoming, a Secret Service memo obtained by the Times said.
The ring could end up stealing “hundreds of millions of
dollars” from state unemployment departments that have been completely
overwhelmed by Americans desperate for a financial lifeline after economies
shut down.
Roy Dotson, a special agent at the Secret Service, told The
Times that investigators were still trying to confirm who was behind the
attacks and where exactly they are operating,
”We are actively running down every lead we are getting,”
Dotson said.
Investigators believe a network of middlemen in the United
States is likely involved as intermediaries, or “mules,” for the operation.
They also fear the attackers must have amassed reams of
personal identifying information in order to have carried out such a broad hit
on state unemployment systems.
“It is assumed the fraud ring behind this possesses a
substantial P.I.I. [Personally Identifiable Information] database to submit the
volume of applications observed thus far,” the memo said, according to the
Times.
Signs of fraud have reportedly flashed across the country.
Rhode Islands’ labor department has noticed suspicious
claims, the Times found.
And confused workers and business owners in Washington state
have flooded officials there with calls about unemployment notifications that
were sent to them even though they hadn’t made claims.
“This is a gut punch,” Suzi LeVine, the commissioner of the
Employment Security Department in Washington state, told The Times.
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