..."and nobody even asked any questions,"

Tens of billions in Covid relief funds, especially unemployment help. Sounds like the identification protocols were weak, to say the least.

I guess there really are zillions of files of Americans' identities stashed in the recesses of the Dark Web.

Must seem like getting the proverbial candy from a baby to them, "easy money".

That's the internet for ya' - anonymity leads to a level of crime never before possible, concretely or emotionally. Kind of the drones of cyber-criminals, plundering without any contact whatsoever with the victims who are just imaginary to them.

Of course, the real victims are actually you and me - as if we weren't already getting ripped off enough by all the corruption in the seats of power right in our own country.

I sure wish there were some way to come up with better protection. I guess I ought to remind myself of these misdeeds. when I find myself resenting all the increasing levels of authentication I'm required to provide, along with obligatory password changes and all.

FTM Somebody/ies managed to break into my Social Security account a few years ago, in fact. I'd never have known if I hadn't gotten a letter from SS inquiring about the online account I'd recently opened. Only I had done no such thing. What was really weird was the account was opened using the (ugly) middle name I'd gotten permission to drop from my SS account/card.

At least that reassured me they hadn't gotten my ID from my computer because I haven't used that middle name anywhere online since I signed up. Social Security told me they didn't even have that name in my file. That MAYBE it was. included in some effectively buried file.

International scam artists pull off massive COVID relief heist