Maryland is getting swamped with fake unemployment claims and FOX 5 is learning new details about tactics thieves are using.
A massive fraud ring targeting unemployment benefits was first announced in July, but since then has only gotten worse. The Maryland Department of Labor says it’s gotten over 156,000 claims it believes are fraudulent in just the first six weeks of the new year, which is about two in three of new claims received.
About a month ago, Charles Steed, who lives in Carroll County, got four envelopes in the mail from the labor department. They had four different names, but his home address.
“I didn’t look at the name, so I opened one and it happened to be a debit card for unemployment,” said Steed. “So I called the bank and asked them what should I do with them?”
He says the bank told him to take them to the post office marked “return to sender.” Since then, he’s received four more debit cards.
A spokeswoman for the labor department tells FOX 5 “fraudsters were likely planning to go to the individual’s address to steal his mail,” and that it’s a tactic being used across the country. She said the fraudulent claims sent to Steed’s address have been blocked.
“I hope they don’t come looking for (the debit cards) because that would definitely jeopardize my family and the surrounding neighbors that I have,” said Steed.
Across the state, Marylanders are finding out their addresses and identities are being used by scammers.
Let’s see how Hogan defends this he’s never on the side of tax paying citizens or the elderly. Worst Governor and Mayor ever and no end in sight. Jake will return for his festival because that’s all he cares about drinking partying and cheating on spouses. When is his fake Africa tour of duty over?
The bigger question is how did they get the employee’s data.
We have had many fraud claims and all of them have the correct start date, Social, etc
Our payroll, like many, is done with an outside company, which would lead me to believe they breached the payroll companies systems and they are not telling their clients.
Wonder how many of these fraudsters voted in our state for these top Democrats running this system??. How much has the state lost due to this corruption???????????