The same identity theft schemes that bilked the unemployment insurance system out of perhaps $250 billion are already being used on states’ disability payment programs.
California earlier this year revealed that it had frozen more than 300,000 claims because of fraud concerns, saying “states have not experienced such scams until now.”
The food stamp program has also shown a serious spike in identity fraud, and analysts say other programs are vulnerable too. They include rental assistance, state tax refunds and even Medicaid, the federal-state health care program that pays to deliver medical coverage to the poor.
“We’re all sitting on the edge of our seats trying to wait and see what that response is going to be,” said Jarrod Carnahan, senior director of government solutions at Appriss Insights. “I am predicting that we are going to see a number of these fraudsters use those sophisticated methods and shift their focus to those programs — if they haven’t already.”
The disability fraud in California suggests they already have.
Using the same kinds of stolen identity troves built during the pandemic, criminal syndicates flooded California’s Employment Development Department, or EDD, with bogus claims. The state insists it spotted the scam in time and didn’t know of any…
