NE Washington News

More than 200 residents of Okanogan County have been victims of an unemployment fraud scandal in Washington state. 

Suzi Levine, commissioner of the state Employment Security Department, told Methow Valley News hundreds of millions of dollars have been erroneously paid out. 

More individuals and businesses starting reporting fraudulent claims to the ESD in early May. Claims were filed using personal information stolen in a data breach. But ESD's secure system is not the one that was breached, according to Methow Valley News. 

Unemployment fraud is occurring across the country, but Washington state has been hit especially hard because it pays the second-highest unemployment benefits in the country. 

In response to the devastating job loss that occurred at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Washington state focused on providing benefits to those out of work as quickly as possible. More than 750,000 Washingtonians have received unemployment benefits, but some are still waiting for their payments to begin.

Now, ESD is holding claims for several days in order to verify the applicant's identity and employment history, Methow Valley News reported. The agency reports their countermeasures are working and they have already stopped thousands of fraudulent claims from being processed. 

Fraudulent claims have been filed across a broad spectrum of employers. Okanogan County Sheriff told Methow Valley News he has received reports of fraudulent claims from employees in the Methow Valley School District and other school districts in the county, the Okanogan County and the Douglas County public utility districts, Coca-Cola and the town of Conconully. 

More than 768,000 people have filed unemployment claims in Washington since mid-March when the unemployment rate jumped from 5.1% to 15.4%, Methow Valley News reported. 

The U.S. Secret Service issued an alert about a Nigerian fraud ring using the COVID-19 virus to commit fraud against state unemployment insurance programs.