Harwell ‘Narvar’ Holmes is one of many Gillette residents who have been victimized by fraudulent unemployment insurance claims being submitted on their behalf in recent months.
Like others, the cyber security specialist at Campbell County Health was surprised to receive a letter in the mail from the Wyoming Department of Workforce Services (WDWS) stating his claim hadn’t been processed, particularly since he had no idea he’d even been laid off after working at the hospital for 17 years.
Turns out, he hadn’t, not that that stopped his claim from being processed.
“They sent a digital check before even getting validation from the hospital,” Holmes said.
He’s not alone.
In the past week, seven Campbell County residents have reported receiving similar notifications about fraudulent claims.
One 62-year-old women reported to the Gillette Police Department (GPD) that an unknown person had tried to use her information to file and unemployment claim with Wyoming Workforce Services. In her case, officers contacted employees at Gillette Workforce and were able to terminate claim prior to payout. A 67-year-old Gillette man, who was able to stop the claim in time after being alerted to the fact that someone was attempting to use his social security number to file a claim. Others have not been as lucky.
Another Gillette woman reported to GPD that someone had tried to use her husband’s information to file a fraudulent claim. In his case, it’s unclear if the fraudulent claim went through. The list goes on.
Right now, it appears that Wyoming is one of seven states currently being targeted by foreign actors taking advantage of mass filings of unemployment claims during the coronavirus pandemic, including Washington.
Senator Mike Enzi was notified by the Secret Service in May that a sophisticated group out of Nigeria had managed to defraud several states, including Wyoming, with these types of fraudulent unemployment insurance claims as the state, like others, experience a massive influx of these claims due to people left unemployed or furloughed over these last few months.
Speaking in a Finance Committee hearing last week on Capitol Hill, Enzi breached his concern regarding the rise of fraudulent claims.
“it’s concerning that my state of Wyoming was a target for a foreign fraud ring,” he said.
At the same hearing, Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia assured Enzi that there are many different mechanisms in place to address the “highly sophisticated criminal enterprises” attempting to fraud the system.
“Wyoming being the target of a foreign fraud ring is obviously a serious concern,” Rachel Vliem, press secretary for Enzi’s office said in an email Friday to County 17. “Ultimately, this is a state implementation issue, but federal agencies are also working on it.”
Meanwhile, the WDWS is doing their own due diligence, according to according to Tyler “Ty” Stockton, communications manager for the agency, who are being inundated by claims, he said. Typically, they process anywhere between 450 – 500 new claims per week, he said. During the pandemic, they have been processing nearly 2,000 claims per week.
“Over the last several weeks, we have been catching 100 – 125 of false claims per day,” Stockton said. “Unfortunately, there have been several false claims that have made it through the vetting process, and so far, the state has paid out a little over $5,400.”
This is much better than other states, he noted, such as Washington, for example, who has lost millions in fraudulent claims.
It’s unclear how the criminal rings are getting access to social security numbers and other private information as the case is currently under investigation by the FBI.
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Fraudulent Unemployment Claims Spike Across Gillette and State - County 17
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