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Some fraud conspiracies are especially creative, and some of the most notorious fraudsters in the United States have worked in creative industries like painting, filmmaking, photography and literature. Today’s fraud, courtesy of mylanews.com deals with a woman who stole the identities of senior citizens in order to claim unemployment insurance for them. She gave them fake jobs at a company she claimed to operate, promising them the potential for roles in Hollywood films. (However, in my opinion, this fraud story does not deserve to be glorified by being made into a Hollywood movie.)
The fraudster pleaded guilty on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud as part of a plea agreement in a Los Angeles federal court. Her scheme occurred over the course of two years, and involved recruiting seniors by convincing them that they would be involved in remakes of famous Hollywood classics. (But instead of assembling actors to make the next James Bond, this woman may need to get a bail bond.) To show her victims that she was offering a real opportunity, this fraudster and her co-conspirators created fake film animation and production companies which they used to demonstrate legitimacy.
Once they signed up the seniors and received their necessary employment information, including their Social Security numbers, they filed false wage reports and then pretended to lay off these workers. The story states that these fraudsters collected more than $290,000 in unemployment benefits originally directed for these senior citizens. However, the victims of this identity fraud never saw any of the fake wages from the production companies, nor any of the unemployment benefits they were supposed to receive. (If everything about this story seems unreal, suffice it to say that it could only be made in Hollywood.)
The woman who took the plea bargain on October 14, 2015 faces sentencing on January 6, 2016. She faces up to five years in Federal prison.
It’s been said that truth is stranger than fiction. This scheme certainly falls into that category. Let’s hope that as part of her sentencing, this fraudster receives an appropriate sentence, and that someone can do something to help the seniors whose identities were stolen, as well.
The post Woman pleads guilty in ID theft; seniors promised movie roles appeared first on Fraud of the Day.