Federal authorities arrested and charged 15 people for allegedly stealing $1.4 million in SNAP, Mass Health, disability, and unemployment benefits, the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
The charges are a part of a string of government benefits fraud cases the office has started pursuing since December. Since then, they’ve charged more than 60 defendants in connection to $63 million in alleged fraud.
Although federal officials said they are proud of the work that’s been done in Massachusetts so far, they argued that access to state benefits data would streamline investigations and uncover more wrongdoing.
“It makes me very hopeful that we can actually make a difference,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said an interview with the Herald after the announcement.
“We have buy-in from all of our law enforcement partners and everyone is on the same page,” Foley said, though…
Cyber fraud uses technology as the primary weapon. It is highly scalable and can be conducted from anywhere in the world.
- Phishing/Smishing/Vishing: Using deceptive emails (phishing), text messages (smishing), or phone calls (vishing) to trick victims into clicking malicious links or revealing sensitive data.
- Business Email Compromise (BEC): A high-value scam where a criminal impersonates a CEO or high-level executive via a “spoofed” email address to trick a staff member into making an urgent, unauthorized wire transfer.