Unemployment Fraud Is Costing the US Billions http://finance.yahoo.com/news/unemployment-fraud-costing-us-billions-195524042.html Unemployment fraud is costing the government billions of dollars in paid benefits to people who are still working, no longer alive or are behind bars, according to a new report. A study by the St. Louis Federal Reserve released last week found that of the $108 billion paid out in unemployment benefits in 2011, some $3.3 billion was paid out dishonestly The largest share of the fraud payments-$2.2 billion-went to people who were still working. (more at above url)
Reminds me of the story I read this morning about a Democrap congresswoman who took a round the world tour on our dime to the tune of about $27,000.
Obama is an unbelievable piece of shit. USDA FLYER: WE DON'T CHECK IMMIGRATION STATUS FOR FOOD STAMPS A government watchdog group has discovered that the United States government is advising Spanish-speaking residents that they need not declare their immigration status to qualify for food stamps. Judicial Watch obtained the Spanish-language flyers through a Freedom of Information Act request and announced on Thursday that the "promotion of the food stamp program, now known as 'SNAP' (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), includes a Spanish-language flyer provided to the Mexican Embassy by the USDA. A statement on the flyerâemphasized in bold and underlinedâreads, âYou need not divulge information regarding your immigration status in seeking this benefit for your children.â Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said of this discovery, the "USDA is actively working with the Mexican government to promote food stamps for illegal aliens." This implication, he asserted, "should have a direct impact on the fate of the immigration bill now being debated in Congress." âThese disclosures further confirm the fact that the Obama administration cannot be trusted to protect our borders or enforce our immigration laws," Fitton said. "And the coordination with a foreign government to attack the policies of an American state is contemptible.â Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN) are working on a bill that would cut such programs. âSince President Obama came into office, SNAP participation has increased at 10 times the rate of job creation, the annual spending on SNAP has doubled, and one in seven Americans now participates in SNAP,â Thune said. âThis explosive growth in both the SNAP enrollment and federal cost of the program is alarming and requires lawmakers to take cost-effective legislative control measures.â http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Govern...al-Immigrants-You-Can-Qualify-for-Food-Stamps
Time to revive this thread from the past. How come the government has not fixed the problem of unemployment fraud yet? Now in the COVID era the unemployment fraud is worse than ever. Even offshore Nigerian scammers are in on it sucking in tens of millions of dollars every week. ‘Hundreds of millions’ in bogus jobless benefits paid out (just from the state of Washington) https://apnews.com/7994de08ee307f99c02ab09f4213ae91 Impostors have used the stolen information of tens of thousands of people in Washington to fraudulently receive hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits, the head of the state’s Employment Security Department said Thursday. Commissioner Suzi LeVine said the state is working with federal law enforcement, financial institutions and the U.S. Department of Labor to investigate the fraud and try to recover the money paid out during the huge spike in joblessness during the coronavirus crisis. LeVine said she can’t release specific numbers or details of the ongoing investigation. But she said that countermeasures taken by the state have “prevented hundreds of millions of additional dollars from going out to criminals and have prevented thousands of fraudulent claims being filed.” LeVine said that in addition to other measures the agency has already taken, they will continue to delay payments — a step they first took last week — to all applicants in order to take extra steps to verify claims. Previously, applicants set up for direct deposit receive their money within 24 to 48 hours. Now, they will need to wait an additional two days. The New York Times and Seattle Times have previously reported that a U.S. Secret Service alert issued last week identified Washington as the top target so far of a Nigerian fraud ring seeking to commit large-scale fraud against state unemployment insurance programs. LeVine said she couldn’t speak to the details of the investigation, but said that the Secret Service alert wasn’t directly shared with her, but that the agency received it through other sources. But LeVine said agency officials realized something was amiss before that alert, once they started receiving communication from employers or employees who received information about unemployment benefits that the employee didn’t seek. More than 1.1 million people in Washington have filed for unemployment benefits since businesses started closing in March due to COVID-19, but state officials said Thursday they believe some portion of an increase in claims seen in the past week are due to so-called “impostor fraud” claims. LeVine said previously that there have been no data breaches at the agency, and that recent fraud attempts are cases where someone’s personal information has been previously stolen from other sources — like during the 2017 Equifax breach — and is now being used to filed for benefits. “These are very sophisticated criminals who have pretty robust collections of information on people, and they are activating and monetizing that information,” she said. More than 1.6 million claims for unemployment benefits — with some of that number reflecting people who filed multiple claims — were filed for the week of May 10-16, and more than $1 billion was paid last week to 565,764 individual claims. To date, the state has paid out nearly $3.8 billion in benefits to more than 768,000 people, including federal money that is providing the unemployed with an additional $600 per week on top of the state’s weekly maximum benefit of up to $790 per week. Levine noted that Washington’s state’s weekly maximum benefit — the second highest in the nation — plus the additional federal weekly money “does make us a more attractive target overall.” Washington’s stay-at-home order — in place since March 23 — has been extended through at least May 31. The state’s unemployment rate has jumped to a record 15.4% last month and the state’s economy lost 527,000 jobs last month. LeVine said that a jump in new unemployment benefit claims last week — long after most business closures occurred — point to additional fraud attempts across various industries. “It is a broad spectrum of employers in both the public and the private sector who have had this impacting their employees,” LeVine said. Over the past two months, nearly 39 people nationwide have filed for unemployment aid due to the economic impacts of the coronavirus. Gov. Jay Inslee announced a four-stage reopening plan earlier this month, and has allowed counties with fewer new cases to apply to jump ahead to the second stage, which allows some businesses to reopen, including dine-in restaurants at half capacity. Ten counties have already been approved, and Inslee announced Tuesday that 10 more counties are now eligible to apply. More than 19,115 people in Washington state have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 1,044 have died. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, and the vast majority recover. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness and death in some patients, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
How does a Nigerian collect a check? Are they creating a bank account where the money is deposited in the U.S. and then transferring it back home?
They work in cahoots with people they pay onshore at times. Keep in mind that most states do direct deposit for unemployment checks. A few states require the first check be sent to a U.S. address. Most scammers have an onshore bank account and simply move the money offshore as soon as it is deposited. The real problem is many states are not even checking the existing addresses and information from unemployment filers from their state income tax information. Most states are not checking with employers regarding the employer status of the person (or verifying the real employer)... and a host of other problems. States seem to be simply focused on processing unemployment applications as fast as possible with minimal validation in a rush to hand out money -- an environment loved by scammers.