Las Vegas woman sent to federal prison for unemployment fraud | #phishing | #scams | #hacking | #aihp

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A federal judge sentenced Danielle Lacharis Buck, aka Danielle Lacharis Lakey, to almost four years in federal prison for stealing at least 40 identities and fraudulently collecting approximately $175,662 in unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department (EDD).

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Buck was employed in medical billing and collections in Las Vegas. Buck would get people’s names, social security numbers, and employment information from her work and use these identities to apply for and receive unemployment insurance benefits.

The DOJ says that once approved for the benefits, Buck would use ATMs in Las Vegas and Los Angeles to withdraw cash with the benefit cards she would receive. In total, Buck submitted more than 50 false unemployment insurance claims using at least 40 different stolen identities.

Buck ran this scheme for a little over eight years from 2010 to 2019. The judge sentenced Buck to one count of mail fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. In addition to imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Kent J. Dawson sentenced Buck to three years of supervised release.