A “well-organized” Nigerian fraud ring allegedly stole hundreds of millions of dollars from Washington State’s Government. Bailout packages recently enacted by Congress increased unemployment insurance by up to $600 per week. Nigerians used fraudulent documents and stolen identities to apply for, and receive, millions in unemployment insurance.
The scammers were able to procure personal information from a large number of Washington residents. People who never filed for unemployment at all got letters in the mail saying that their unemployment claim is processing.
Scams of this magnitude aren’t necessarily difficult to do at a time like this. States are overrun with unemployment claims and simply cannot handle the traffic. So an environment is created where blind spots are everywhere. It’s easy to slip flimsy documents through the cracks during a shutdown than it is at any other time.
President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged to eliminate the unemployment insurance hike by the end of July 2020. McConnell says the program discourages work because people get paid more to stay at home than actually work. And of course there is plenty of waste, fraud, and abuse that happens.
Social Distancing At Fault
Human-to-human physical contact is still sort of taboo in select parts of the country. Nobody wants to get sick so they are “social distancing” to the point of total isolation. As important business and/or private transactions are conducted more and more through telephone, the less secure those transactions become.
People don’t secure their personal possessions as much as they should. Burglaries often feature an entry through an unlocked door. Same as car thefts. Keys left in the ignition or on the seat. Securing possessions is not necessarily an American priority. Especially extremely valuable digital possessions. Like legal documentation.
The crooks in question targeted other states in this “well-organized” fraud ring. Wyoming, Florida, and North Carolina were in their crosshairs.
Could This Be An Inside Job?
It is likely that this electronic “heist” only involved those identified at the beginning of this article. The Nigerian Fraud ring. But the question is… who’s in the ring? It very well could just be some guys working the phone from Lagos. Could a mole exist within Washington’s Government? That seems to make sense due to how much money was taken. The scammers in Lagos could simply be the fall guys.
Democrats across the board in Congress show favor to canceling in-person elections. Their proposed alternative is giving everyone an electronic card or pass to vote with. But it’s clear now that they can’t even dole out free money. Let alone run an entire election with no in-person interaction.
