BELLINGHAM, Wash. – The Secret Service is now attributing unemployment fraud impacting numerous Whatcom County residents to a well-organized Nigerian fraud ring.
Individuals residing out-of-state are reportedly receiving multiple ACH deposits from the State of Washington Unemployment Benefit Program, all in different individuals’ names with no connection to the account holder.
An email to Western Washington University faculty and staff Friday night says the school was told by the Secret Service the fraud network is believed to number potentially thousands of so-called “mules” with possible losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The email says the primary state targeted so far is Washington, with evidence of attacks in six other states.
It is assumed the fraud ring behind this possesses a substantial personally identifiable information database to submit the volume of applications seen to date.