As job losses mount, fraud rings target already overburdened unemployment systems.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the state of Washington has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment claims, the Associated Press reports. State and U.S. government officials allege that a West African fraud ring is filing false claims using stolen identities. Many of those people still were employed, so they weren't likely to notice that someone had filed an unemployment claim in their name unless their employer contacted them about it.
