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#2236868 - 05/18/20 08:08 PM Unemployment Fraud
Felix Offline
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Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 5
The Secret Service posted an alert regarding a widespread fraud ring using mules to create fake unemployment claims. (https://krebsonsecurity.com/2020/05...t-state-unemployment-insurance-programs/). I'm curious if anyone has come across fraudulent unemployment claims from WA or any other state for that matter. I'm also curious if there is a repository for unemployment descriptions from every state. I would like to run a query against our ACH report to compare the unemployment state to our customers state of residence.

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#2236872 - 05/18/20 08:51 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
CULady Offline
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 497
WA
WA state company name for unemployment: WA ST EMPLOY SEC
In the description: UI BENEFIT

Caveat: This information was provided as a screenshot of another institution's ACH file. I'm guessing on the fields, but the information should be correct.

Hope this helps! I am hearing stories of romance/job type scams associated with the fraudulent deposits. Same scams, different source of funds.
Last edited by CULady; 05/18/20 08:52 PM.
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#2236888 - 05/19/20 12:38 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud CULady
MDShoregirl Offline
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 32
I have two affected accounts so far and would also appreciated some keywords to look some more. Mine are from Massachusetts.
Search for:
MA DUA

For one account the ACH description also included an individual name that was not the customer name. That customer received 9 incoming ACH credits totaling to $6003. The other one had the customer name and the description MA UI Tax. There were three of those totaling to $4840. Any information on other states would be most appreciated.

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#2236973 - 05/19/20 09:22 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
CalifDreamin Offline
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Far from Calif
Is it the bank who originated the ACH that takes the loss on these? (That is how I understand the NACHA rules - that the originating bank will take the loss.) Example: John smith receives one of these fraudulent ACH's in his acct for $10,500, and immediately withdraws $10,000 of it. We find out later it's one of the fraudulent ones mentioned above. Do we take the hit or does the originating bank? What do we do with the $500 left in his account (his profit from this fraud)?
Last edited by CalifDreamin; 05/19/20 10:19 PM.
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#2236977 - 05/19/20 10:18 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
rlcarey Offline
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Galveston, TX
As long as the ACH was credited to the correct account number according to the ACH transaction received, it is never the receiving institution that would take the loss. As far as the funds left over, they would stay there until withdrawn by the customer or someone comes and gets them or they are escheated.
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#2236978 - 05/19/20 10:20 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud rlcarey
CalifDreamin Offline
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Far from Calif
Thank you for the confirmation!
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#2237061 - 05/20/20 08:37 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
DonnaK Offline
Member
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 80
Michigan
We would also like to try and get the agency descriptions (company ID) for each state's unemployment agency. I was thinking of emailing the contact in the alert.

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#2237064 - 05/20/20 09:08 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
Felix Offline
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Joined: Mar 2020
Posts: 5
I can't vouch for the accuracy but I just spent some time manually looking at our reports and google searching the descriptions. *Notice* there are some duplicate states descriptors which lead me to believe that this list is not 100% accurate. Also I wasn't able to locate all 50 states. Please feel free to add or correct any errors.

Hope this helps!

Colorado (CDLE UI BENEFITS)
Delaware (DELABOR UNEMPINS)
Alabama (DEPT OF LABOR)
Georgia (GA DEPT OF LABOR)
Kansas (KS DEPT OF LABOR)
Massachusetts (MA DUA)
Maine (Maine Dept Labor)
Minnesota (MN DEPT OF DEED)
Minnisota (MPLS USPS PDC MN)
Minnisota (MN DEPT OF REVEN)
North Carolina (NCDES-UIBENEFITS)
New Mexico (New Mexico DWS)
New York (NYS DOL UI DD)
New York (NY STATE)
Rhode Island (RIDLT-UI)
South Carolina (SCESC-UIBENEFITS)
Indiana (STATE OF INDIANA)
Tennessee (TN DUA PAYMENTS)
Tennessee (TN UI PAYMENTS)
Tennessee (STATE OF TENNESS)
Texas (TWC-BENEFITS)
Michigan (UIA PRE-PAID CAR)
Michigan (STATEOFMICHIGAN)
Kentucky (Kentucky UNEMPLOYMENT INS)
Washington (WA ST EMPLOY SEC)
Wisconsin (WISCONSIN-DWD-UI)
Pennsylvania (COMM OF PA UCD)
Mississippi (MDES)
New Jersey (STATE OF NJ – LA)
Missouri (MODES)
Virginia (VEC – VIRGINIA)
Illinois (IDES)
Connecticut (CTDOL UNEMP COMP)
Ohio (ODJFS)
Ohio (STATE OF OHIO)
Alaska (Alaska DOL)
Montana (STATE OF MONTANA)
Maryland (ST. OF MARYLAND)
Arkansas (AK DEPT OF LABOR)
Idaho (ID DEPT OF LABOR)

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#2237084 - 05/21/20 03:50 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
RockChucker, CAMS Offline
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Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,700
The Country
I just encountered an instance where they were using a romance scam to use our customers account to receive ACH Credits from the Massachusetts Pandemic Assistance (PUA) and requesting he send them money. We are nowhere near MA by the way.

We caught it but wanted to give a heads up to you wonderful people.
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#2237118 - 05/21/20 06:33 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud RockChucker, CAMS
DonnaK Offline
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 80
Michigan
What was the description on the ACH - company ID # and name?

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#2237147 - 05/22/20 02:28 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
RockChucker, CAMS Offline
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The Country
Company Name: MA DUA
Company Discretionary Data: MA PUA PROGRAM
Company ID: C046002284
Company Entry: CARES ACT
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#2237283 - 05/27/20 08:41 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
bcompliance Offline
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,309
When aggregating for SAR consideration, are you all aggregating on the payments posted/attempted that are identified as fraud or are you looking at it at the customer level?
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#2237387 - 05/29/20 09:23 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
BSA2019 Offline
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Posts: 18
What about the notification to the Secret Service if you are filing a SAR- any concerns that is breaching confidentiality.

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#2237392 - 05/30/20 12:14 AM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
BrianC Offline
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,851
Illinois
Once the SAR is filed you can speak to law enforcement about its existence. This is covered by your safe harbor and law enforcement does not need a subpoena.
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#2237699 - 06/08/20 03:51 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
chuckchuck Offline
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Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 49
FYI- I have filed these on Michigan, Massachusetts, Washington and now Maine. I intended to notify LE after filing, and I was already getting calls like the day it probably showed up in their FinCEN database. LE is being very proactive about these.

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#2237800 - 06/09/20 10:28 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud BSA2019
MJNoone Offline
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 115
Kansas
US Attorney's Office and/or DOJ will be calling you!! I filed one and a week later I had a call requesting supporting documentation. They indicated these are a priority right now!

Our affected account was from MA DUA as well - military romance scam. Our customer had a copy of her "boyfriend's" military ID she was more than willing to share after finding out she was being used as a money mule. You could plainly see the ID had been doctored. We had 10 ACH transactions totaling $6870
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#2238010 - 06/12/20 05:13 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
JennKK2 Offline
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 362
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our customer has received multiple ACH deposits from Massachusetts and Maine all exactly as noted in the previous posts. at one time this customer withdrew $7,000.00 in cash. days later came in to withdraw $4,000.00 in cash for a money order and the remaining in cash. the teller - after the fact - noticed the ACH transactions were from the two states MA and ME and thought well that's odd - we're no where near either and our customer would not have been working there either to receive them. looked at he ACH details and noticed the names on the payments were for 3 different people. teller checked with other staff to see if these people were somehow connected to the customer. nope.

this customer also conducted some ACH debits to COINBASE,COM totaling $4,000.00

quickly called the customer who returned to the bank with money order and cash in hand. it was explained what was discovered and concerned the customer may be unknowingly involved in a scam. she mentioned a boyfriend who information she shared with the bank. we did file a SAR. we left the account opened to see if there may be other ACH transactions to come and notified LE.

our bank VP tried via websites and emails to notify the appropriate authorities in the states and has not heard back from any. the Chief of Police, who had many challenges to finding the appropriate people / channels to report to, also has not heard from either of the states.

we totaled over $13,000.00 for these fraudulent ACH transactions.
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#2238041 - 06/12/20 08:12 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud JennKK2
CalifDreamin Offline
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,281
Far from Calif
We have found our local US Secret Service office (via phone call) to be our best contact for these. Have you tried that?
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#2238045 - 06/12/20 09:15 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
Marmaduchess Online
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Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 175
Oregon Coast
Ironically my husband filed for unemployment 2 months ago and we haven't seen a red cent. Always some kind of technicality with the forms etc... He's back at work now but glad to know the crooks are getting through.

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#2238103 - 06/15/20 07:17 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
ahkcompliance Offline
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Joined: Sep 2008
Posts: 2,481
Midwest
If we do file a SAR and leave the account opened to see if any more deposits come in, do we have to do a 90 day review of the SAR?

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#2238107 - 06/15/20 07:32 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
bcompliance Offline
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Posts: 1,309
yes, technically even if you close the account you would need to do a 90 day review and file if it meets the threshold for attempts to post to the account
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#2238251 - 06/17/20 03:54 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud chuckchuck
Annie_26 Offline
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Posts: 4
When you filed the SAR did you report on your customers in which accounts that they went into and then in the narrative put the names of the info on the ACH file? I'm at a loss here....

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#2238253 - 06/17/20 04:01 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
JennKK2 Offline
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Posts: 362
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in our case we very much believe the customer did not have any idea they were being scammed by a "boyfriend" so the SAR pertained to the names connected to the ACH transactions but the customer was included in the SAR narrative
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#2238254 - 06/17/20 04:26 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud JennKK2
Annie_26 Offline
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Joined: May 2012
Posts: 4
So, we have only had one customer that came in and withdrew funds saying this was a "loan"(in which I will report on), but the others seem to not even know or haven't contacted us about their deposits... So I am really not understanding if this is fraud why would our customers not come in wondering where their deposits are?

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#2238259 - 06/17/20 04:48 PM Re: Unemployment Fraud Felix
bcompliance Offline
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 1,309
we included our customers and the names as subjects because they each were acting as mules and indicated why we put them there in the narrative.
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