When money is being thrown around left and right, someone is bound to take advantage of it… illegally.
The New York Post reported:
“A Bronx man allegedly stole $1.4million in an elaborate COVID-19 identity scam, but was finally sniffed out due to his own four-legged friend, authorities said.
Prosecutors said Elvin German’s brazen fraud scheme was uncovered because he kept using the name of his pooch, Benji, as a security question on hundreds of bogus online applications for COVID unemployment benefits.”
German, also failed to use an IP scrambler to mask his criminal activity. All of his applications could be traced back to a single internet protocol address.
The government paid out $1,483,622 in prepaid debit cards. 255 cards were sent to over one hundred addresses.
It’s interesting how someone with such a seemingly intricate and elaborate plan, could have such massive flaws.
The forty one year old man faces up to 20 years in prison for fraud, and identity theft.