It’s a race against time to get free government money from New Jersey’s Anchor Benefit Program and no one is hustling harder than fraudsters.

The program gives people who rented or owned a home in New Jersey during the pandemic up to $2,500.

And fraudsters love the program, which appears to have, let’s just say, very LOOSE fraud controls.

Telegram Scammers Abuzz Over The Program

To understand why the program is being targeted, you just need to browse some of the chatter on Telegram.

And there is a lot of it.

Everyone wants to know, “What is this thing that everyone is doing now in New Jersey?”

One of the most popular topics of discussion is “how to cheat the program by using stolen identities”. It appears that New Jersey isn’t monitoring for basic things like looking for fraudsters using the same addresses to have checks mailed.

Check out this conversation here. ?

Kind of a no-brainer fraud control they could implement. But it’s probably too late.

But if you don’t want to send a physical check to an address, you can still have the check direct deposited into any bank account – including a stolen account, or a synthetic bank account.

Fraudsters also seem to like having those benefit checks deposited in bank accounts, and the bank doesn’t even check if the name matches.

You know your benefits program has arrived when you have your methods and grifters that are selling methods and stolen identities that other fraudsters can use to steal from you.

And that is exactly the case with the New Jersey Anchor Benefits program. Fraudsters are selling their own fool proof ways to apply for benefits so you can get paid.

I checked online, and I didn’t see anything from New Jersey indicating that they are being slammed with fraudulent applications, but you can bet you will read about it at some point.

Like the waves of PPP and Unemployment fraud during the pandemic, most fraud revelations occur after the program is over.

I am sure this New Jersey program will be the same.