Colorado officials have formed a task force to investigate and prosecute criminals using stolen identities to file fraudulent unemployment insurance claims during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has received 1.1 million fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits in the year since the pandemic hit the state, Joe Barela, the agency’s executive director said Thursday. The department has put dozens of roadblocks into its online unemployment benefits system since the pandemic began to prevent fraudulent payments and has signed a contract with a vendor to expand its investigation unit to find and stop fraud, he said.

First-time Colorado unemployment claims down, fraud still way up

While the department has paid out $6.5 million to fraudsters, new security features have prevented another $7.5 billion – the estimated amount the department would have paid if the claims had been determined to be legitimate – in fraudulent benefit payments since the pandemic began, Barela said. The agency has been able to get back nearly $1 million in fraudulent payments by working with banks and the U.S. Secret Service.

“Our top priority has been to identify the fraud, prevent it, and release any benefits owed to legitimate claimants,” Barela said. “We have tripled the size of our criminal investigative team since the start of the pandemic, with another set of hiring right now.”

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the labor department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the Colorado District Attorney’s Council formed the task force to “get to the bottom and work to bring these criminals to justice,” Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said during a virtual news conference. The group also will work with the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute cases involving out-of-state or international suspects, he said.

“The breadth of the unemployment insurance scam is staggering,” Weiser said. “Everyone is at risk in all parts of the state.” But there are ways, he said, that people can protect themselves from identity theft, which can affect a victim’s credit, making it more difficult for them to get approved for mortgages, car loans and credit cards. Recovering from identity theft can take many hours of work over weeks or months.

Weiser said no arrests have been made in Colorado fraudulent unemployment insurance claims, but many investigations are underway. Barela said some cases could be filed in “a couple of months.” Prosecutors most likely would charge those filing fraudulent claims with identity theft, a Class 4 felony that carries a prison sentence of two to six years. If the suspect is found to have violated the state’s organized crime law, they could be sentenced to eight to 24 years in prison.

Unemployment benefits fraud is a national problem. The Associated Press reported Sunday that the U.S. Labor Department inspector general’s office estimates that more than $63 billion has been paid out improperly through fraud or errors – about 10% of the total amount paid under coronavirus pandemic-related unemployment programs since March. The fraud stems from identities stolen in numerous major breaches that are then used to claim unemployment benefits in many state, often by criminals in China, Nigeria and Russia.

The fraudsters found that a new program, called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, to pay unemployment benefits to self-employed persons and contract workers was particularly vulnerable since there is no employer to verify eligibility for benefits. After that program expired, criminals turned to traditional unemployment programs for payroll workers, using stolen identities to file for benefits for fake workers of businesses and government agencies.

Coloradans who believe that someone used their identity to file a fraudulent unemployment insurance claim should visit ColoradoUI.gov to file a report. For information on how to protect yourself from identity theft, download the Identity Theft Repair Kit at StopFraudColorado.gov.

First-time unemployment claims filed last week with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment fell slightly from the previous week as two programs are set to expire next week.

Claims filed by payroll workers fell 13% from the week ended Feb. 20 to 13,034 for the week ended Feb. 27. However, claims by self-employed persons and contract workers jumped 23.7% during the same period to 9,916. Total claims of both types fell by 41 filings, or 0.2%, to 23,950.

The department said nearly 191,000 people continue to receive unemployment payments, but nearly two-thirds will lose benefits with the expiration next Thursday of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for self-employed and contractors and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that pays and extra 11 weeks of benefits to all types of workers.

Wayne Heilman, The Gazette