ANNAPOLIS, MD — Fraudsters tried to swindle Maryland out of $501 million worth of unemployment claims, Gov. Larry Hogan said at a Wednesday press conference. The widespread scam used the stolen identities of 47,500 people from 12 different states.
Maryland blocked the fraudulent claims, saving the state a half a billion dollars. Hogan said this was an large-scale, organized criminal act.
The Maryland Department of Labor caught the fraud over the weekend of July 4 when it noticed an influx of out-of-state residents applying for Maryland's unemployment insurance. These identities were not stolen from Maryland's unemployment database, Hogan emphasized. The stolen identities came from previous federal breaches, he said.
Hogan said the identities of people who filed for unemployment insurance in Maryland were not compromised. Anybody who fears their information was stolen should email ui.fraud@maryland.gov
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