WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) — Impostors have used the stolen information of tens of thousands of people in the state to fraudulently receive hundreds of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits, the head of Washington's Employment Security Department said yesterday.
The New York Times and Seattle Times have previously reported that a US 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 programmes.
But LeVine said agency officials realised 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 yesterday that 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 had been previously stolen from other sources — like during the 2017 Equifax breach — and is now being used to file for benefits.
