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Thieves find brazen way to steal identities
Thieves find brazen way to steal your identity - CNN.com
$5.6 BILLION!
Holy crap! That is insane. When the drug trade is no longer big...guess where the criminals will go.
Thieves find brazen way to steal your identity - CNN.com
It's a crime so brazen that even police have been victims of the scheme.
And it's so pervasive that prosecutors were surprised by the "tsunami of fraud that we have seen around the country," according to Wifredo Ferrer, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
Unemployment benefits are issued as part of a federal and state partnership to provide money to people out of work. State payments are issued on debit cards or to a bank account.
But criminals are capitalizing on that system by buying personal information stolen from places such as hospitals, medical offices, schools and retirement programs. They then log onto state websites and file for unemployment benefits. Since the priority is for states to get the money out quickly, they don't wait for an employer to verify the identity of the person applying for the benefits. Victims typically don't find out what's happened until their employer is notified that they are receiving unemployment payments.
Federal investigators estimate the unemployment benefits fraud totals about $5.6 billion, which includes schemes where identities are stolen.
$5.6 BILLION!
Holy crap! That is insane. When the drug trade is no longer big...guess where the criminals will go.