More than 40 million workers have filed for unemployment benefits since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic — over seven times the number of requests in all of 2019. And all of those claims have been convenient cover for identity thieves filing bogus applications that could cost billions of dollars, the New York Times reported. “Fraudsters have been able to hide in the flood of data,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a public interest research group. “It is a perfect storm of identity fraud. Anyone who has experienced a major breach in the past three or four years could fall victim to this.” The coronavirus has made the unemployment system, which is administered by the states, an attractive target in other ways, too: The CARES Act relief package added an extra $600 a week to successful claims and expanded eligibility to self-employed and similar workers, who are not subject to the same employment verifications that typically apply. Having your application flagged for review doesn’t necessarily mean someone else tried to pose as you — it just means your state thought it warranted further inspection. Fraudulent claims have forced states to dial up their scrutiny and deploy systems that mark potentially suspicious claims.
