Scammers have resorted to mocking social media pages to prey on unemployed Floridians.
Multiple Facebook pages have been made to mimic the Department of Economic Opportunity’s page and unemployment expert Vanessa Brito’s page.
Brito said she’s furious as her effectiveness in helping unemployed Floridians is, in a sense, backfiring.
“It takes away from the real mission,” Brito said.
Since Brito works by herself, she can’t always keep up with the thousands of messages she receives from claimants.
These claimants are so desperate to hear from her, that when a page pretending to be her messages them, they are elated and will hand over any personal information.
Victoria Lynch is one of many who fell victim when the fake Brito profile commented on her post.
“They were like, ‘Message me,’ and it looked really legit,” Lynch recalled.
The page copy and pasted Brito’s current posts on her real profile to give the page credibility.
Lynch, desperate for help, was willing to give the imposter any information they asked for.
“Then they were like, ‘Send me your claimant ID,' so I did,” Lynch explained. “Then they asked for my PIN and I sent that too.”
This is all information needed to log into her CONNECT account and potentially reroute payments to the scammers.
“The amount of trust that has been built in the last year, and to see it put into question because people are trying to scam people, is infuriating,” Brito said.
Brito’s profile isn’t the only one being impersonated. The Department of Economic Opportunity’s Facebook page is also being copied.
On Your Sides’ Josslyn Howard reached out to a fake page.
The imposter said they needed her social security number, and pictures of her driver’s license held next to her face.
Josslyn sent the imposter a traceable link that would give her the scammer’s IP address and location if they clicked it. They clicked it, and they’re located in Germany.
Officials with ID.me said the majority of scammers are foreign.
Josslyn reported this information to Facebook and DEO. The page was taken down right away.
This is just one of the many pages that have and will be created.
Brito says she will never ask for your personal information, and you shouldn’t give it out to anyone.
“Raising my kids like this, and then you try to scam me? You need to have a conscience,” Lynch said with tears.