A significant amount of the fraudulent benefits "have used PII from first responders, government personnel and school employees." (Credit: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com)
A memo from the U.S. Secret Service says a Nigerian crime ring has launched a sophisticated attack on a number of state unemployment insurance programs, exploiting weaknesses in the system in order to steal millions of dollars earmarked for helping jobless U.S. citizens during the COVID-19 epidemic.
The ring has been filing unemployment claims using social security numbers and other personally identifiable information belonging to victims of identity theft who have not been laid off from their jobs, according to KrebsOnSecurity. A significant amount of the fraudulent benefits "have used PII from first-responders, government personnel and school employees," the memo says. Some of the PII is believed to have been obtained from old cyber hacks.
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Richard Binder
Richard Binder, based in New York, is part of the social media team at ALM. He is also a 2014 recipient of the ASPBE Award for Excellence in the Humorous/Fun Department.
