Millions of Americans continue to grapple with the labor and economic crisis stemming from the still latent coronavirus outbreak, Therefore, the distribution of federal aid, such as the unemployment subsidy, continues in various states of the country.
In the case of the state of New York, since the pandemic began, The Department of Labor has distributed more than $ 65 billion in unemployment benefits to more than 4 million New Yorkers, which equates to more than 30 typical years of benefits.
And while this financial aid has been a great relief to millions of Americans, the truth is that There is no shortage of those who have wanted to take advantage of the situation to obtain an economic benefit.
New York Unemployment Assistance: How Many Fraudulent Claims Have There Been?
And it is that, only in the state of New York, The Department of Labor has detected more than 425,000 fraudulent claims, this, according to its most recent update published on February 2.
It is worth mentioning that these frauds were detected before the payments were issued, so it was possible to protect more than 5.5 billion dollars that would have ended up at the hands of scammers.
As reported by the Labor Department, scammers manage to register by making use of identities stolen during data breaches involving “major banking institutions, insurance companies and employers”, Thus, a normal application is submitted and these people collect benefits illegally on behalf of citizens who are not unemployed.
That is why, if you receive a monetary determination letter from the Department of Labor, but you did not apply for unemployment benefit, you must report it immediately in on.ny.gov/uifraud.
For its part, the Department stated that “Technology, including artificial intelligence and other sophisticated techniques, is being used to identify fraud as quickly as possible and stop these criminals in their tracks.”
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