ID verification company helps stop crooks looking to steal unemployment benefits

Crooks are using 3-D technology to steal people’s unemployment benefits by printing fake IDs and trying to mask the crime using fake appearances.

The State of Florida isn’t taking any chances on this one, and a man helping the state invented something that’s peeling away the hope of crooks to scam millions of dollars.

Greg Clarit lost his job as a dishwasher and has been fighting for unemployment.

“It was difficult,” Clarit said. “Listen, difficult is not even the word for it.”

But he isn’t the only one trying to get unemployment dollars. Scammers are also seeing what they can do to get what doesn’t belong to them.

Dane Eagle, the executive director of Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, knows just how bad it is.

“In January, we did have an attempt to file fraudulent claims in Florida to the tune of almost a million claims,” Eagle said.

Eagle says DEO is currently investigating 63,000 identity claims.

He’s enlisting the help of Blake Hall.

“The amount of fraud is just insane,” Hall said.

Hall is the CEO of ID.me, an identity verification company. The combat veteran’s new battle is stopping the fraud.

How it works: Criminals buy identities on the dark web. Then, they file false claims, trying to fake out DEO.

But it’s not only criminals: People who have never broken the law in the past are also trying to cash in.

“If I claim that I lost my job in the sharing economy, I can start to get 600 bucks a week, which turns into $20,000 like pretty quickly,” Hall explained.

ID.me confirms a person’s identity by checking everything, including cell phones.

“We look at things like sim swaps and phone ports and the carrier data,” Hall said.

But the con artists are clever and relentless, some even resort to distorting their appearance, using masks to match the fake IDs they create.

Even prisoners in jail are trying to get the free money using fake IDs.

There have been positive results when ID.me is helping verify identities, but if you do try to sneak through the system, you’ll be reported to the state agency which can refer you to law enforcement.

While ID.me has had significant success, Hall says there is still a lot of work to be done.

“We’re racing to build a cybersecurity perimeter around the country,” Hall said.

MORE: 

• Florida Department of Economic Opportunity 
• Florida Attorney General