The darknet market houses a plethora of fraudsters who pounce at any given moment. While the term fraudster is often paired with the theft of things such as credit cards, bank accounts, checks, and scams, one major exploitation that has been garnishing headlines in the past couple of years is relief fraud. Relief/disaster aid fraud is the exploitation of relief programs or agencies, such as FEMA, during times of natural disasters or critical events.
If a tornado were to hit a populated city or area, it would result in a lot of people being devastated and businesses destroyed. Agencies like FEMA come in to help the situation by providing financial aid to those who have been displaced and affected.
Fraudsters take the opportunity to apply for the relief too in hopes of scoring big. Almost all the fraudsters who prey on these situations are not even affected by the disaster and live miles away from where the actual disaster took place. Due to high-stress situations, they can slip through the cracks and steal funds that were meant for people who are in dire need.
One of the most mainstream relief frauds known to date is the PPP loan (Paycheck Protection Program), a relief program aimed at helping businesses stay afloat and pay workers during the height of the Corona Virus Pandemic. Fraudsters all over the United States started to realize that they could make hundreds of thousands of dollars by faking to be a business.
As shown in the image above, this fraudster is advertising themself as a pandemic shop in which you can buy all the necessary documents, along with other stuff, to start a PPP loan application.
While Coronavirus relief started to fade away as time went on, fraudsters did not fade away and continued to defraud relief in times of disaster. With hurricanes that have decimated Florida and other South-Eastern states of the US, fraudsters announce that they are offering their services to make fast cash off the hurricane disasters in Florida and its neighboring affected states of Georgia and North Carolina:
The fraudsters are bold enough to announce that they are willing to guide people on what steps to take to file for relief funds under the pretense of being a victim of Hurricane Helen and Hurricane Milton... As evidence of the potential money to be made, the fraudster shows that they have made more than $100,000 dollar in each disaster relief application.
While fraudsters still make a lot of money by stealing sensitive information, there is also a huge market in teaching and exploiting relief programs meant to help displaced victims. Natural disasters will continue to occur. This means fraudsters will continue to lurk in the shadows waiting for the next natural disaster to prey on.
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