Fraudsters Buying Identities, Tips & Tricks From Black Market To File Fraudulent Colorado Unemployment Claims

By Kati Weis, CBS Denver:

(CBS4) – Unemployment fraud has been a major problem in Colorado during the pandemic – fraudsters have stolen tens of millions of dollars from our state, and thousands of people’s legitimate unemployment claims are still held up on fraud holds. Now, CBS4 Investigates is getting an up-close look at how criminals across the globe have been committing unemployment fraud in the Centennial State.

Following a thorough search of various dark web forums and marketplaces, CBS4 Investigates found dumps of Coloradans’ identities – called “fullz” – on the black market, advertised as the gateway to file fraudulent pandemic unemployment assistance claims.

“What’s unfortunate today is that someone’s identity is very likely being stored by some cyber criminal, either from one of the many data breaches that we’ve heard about in recent years, or things like basic phishing attacks that are all too common today,” explained Crane Hassold with Agari, a cybersecurity company that follows the dark web closely. “The ways that cyber criminals are able to collect identity information is simply way too easy today, and so there are a lot of avenues by which that information is then sold on underground forums and dark web marketplaces.”

Read more at CBS Denver

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