A3
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MAY 23, 2020
States end spring Millions stolen in unemployment scam
used
salmon fi shery on Imposters
stolen information
Columbia River to take benefi ts
By RACHEL LA CORTE
Associated Press
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
With a forecast for the
lowest return of upriver
Chinook salmon in 21
years and at the urging of
both commercial and recre-
ational fi shermen, Oregon
and Washington state fi sh-
ery managers have closed
the spring Chinook season
on the Columbia River .
The states had proposed
an additional fi ve days of
fi shing at a meeting this
week, including one day for
a commercial main stem
tanglenet fi shery.
Allowed impacts to
Endangered Species Act-
listed salmon were still on
the table and fi shery man-
agers try to provide addi-
tional fi shing opportuni-
ties when such impacts are
available.
But a recent update of
run numbers showed a
12% downgrade for the
upriver spring Chinook
return. Though the forecast
of 72,000 adult Chinook
salmon was still within
management buffers, it was
the lowest return since 1999
and there were concerns
about brood stock collec-
tion for hatcheries.
Commercial fi shermen
and anglers asked the state
to close the fi shery rather
than extend it, citing con-
servation concerns.
“They almost never
agree on anything,” said
Rick Swart, a spokesman
for the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife. But in
this case there was a gen-
eral consensus across the
various groups.
“I had some reserva-
tions myself heading in,”
said Tucker Jones, Colum-
bia River Program manager
for the Oregon Department
Rick Bowmer/AP Photo
Oregon and Washington state
end spring salmon fi shery on
the Columbia River.
of Fish and Wildlife.
He was not surprised
by the response from
fi shermen.
“My experience with
anglers and commercial
fi shermen is they are inter-
ested in opportunity when
opportunity exists,” he said.
“But they’re also pretty for-
ward thinking and they’re
not looking to mortgage
the future for opportunity
today.”
For commercial fi sh-
ermen, there was also
the feasibility of the sin-
gle-day tanglenet fi shery to
consider.
The spring season for
gillnetters in select areas
off the river’s main stem
had already been very poor,
said Jim Wells, an Asto-
ria fi sherma n and president
of Salmon for All, a com-
mercial fi shing advocacy
group.
A single-day tanglenet
fi shery farther upstream
would not have helped, he
said.
Beyond concerns about
the shortage of salmon, this
late in the season the river
is thick with shad, he noted.
Fishermen running tangle-
nets would have had diffi -
culty complying with rules
to return any listed fi sh
caught to the water quickly
if they were also sorting
through that many shad.
“So yeah, that was a
pretty easy one for us to say,
‘No thanks,’” Wells said.
OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Impostors have used the sto-
len information of tens of
thousands of people in Wash-
ington state to fraudulently
receive hundreds of mil-
lions of dollars in unemploy-
ment benefi ts, the head of the
state’s Employment Security
Department said Thursday.
Commissioner
Suzi
LeVine said the state is
working with federal law
enforcement, fi nancial insti-
tutions and the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor to investigate
the fraud and try to recover
the money paid out during
the huge spike in joblessness
during the coronavirus crisis.
LeVine said she can’t
release specifi c numbers or
details of the ongoing inves-
tigation. But she said that
countermeasures taken by
the state have “prevented
hundreds of millions of addi-
tional dollars from going out
to criminals and have pre-
vented thousands of fraudu-
lent claims being fi led.”
LeVine said that in addi-
tion to other measures the
agency has already taken,
they will continue to delay
payments — a step they fi rst
took last week — to all appli-
cants in order to take extra
steps to verify claims. Pre-
viously, applicants set up for
direct deposit receive their
money within 24 to 48 hours.
Now, they will need to wait
an additional two days.
The New York Times
and Seattle Times have pre-
viously reported that a U.S.
Secret Service alert issued
last week identifi ed Wash-
ington state as the top tar-
get so far of a Nigerian
fraud ring seeking to com-
mit large-scale fraud against
state unemployment insur-
ance programs. LeVine said
she couldn’t speak to the
details of the investigation,
Seaside Golf Course
and Lounge
Elaine Thompson/AP Photo
A barber shop remains closed because of the coronavirus
outbreak in Seattle on Tuesday.
but said that the Secret Ser-
vice alert wasn’t directly
shared with her, but that the
agency received it through
other sources.
But LeVine said agency
offi cials realized something
was amiss before that alert,
once they started receiv-
ing communication from
employers or employees
who received information
about unemployment bene-
fi ts that the employee didn’t
seek.
More than 1.1 million
people in Washington state
have fi led for unemploy-
ment benefi ts since busi-
nesses started closing in
March due to COVID-19,
but state offi cials said Thurs-
day they believe some por-
tion of an increase in claims
seen in the past week are due
to so-called “impostor fraud”
claims.
LeVine said previously
that there have been no data
breaches at the agency, and
that recent fraud attempts are
cases where someone’s per-
sonal information has been
previously stolen from other
sources — like during the
2017 Equifax breach — and
is now being used to fi led for
benefi ts.
“These are very sophis-
ticated criminals who have
pretty robust collections of
information on people, and
they are activating and mon-
etizing that information,” she
said.
More than 1.6 million
claims for unemployment
benefi ts — with some of
that number refl ecting peo-
ple who fi led multiple claims
— were fi led for the week of
May 10 through May 16, and
more than $1 billion was paid
last week to 565,764 individ-
ual claims. To date, the state
has paid out nearly $3.8 bil-
lion in benefi ts to more than
768,000 people, including
federal money that is pro-
viding the unemployed with
an additional $600 per week
on top of the state’s weekly
maximum benefi t of up to
$790 per week.
Levine noted that the
state’s weekly maximum
benefi t — the second highest
in the nation — plus the addi-
tional federal weekly money
“does make us a more attrac-
tive target overall.”
Washington state’s stay-
at-home order — in place
since March 23 — has been
extended through at least
May 31. The state’s unem-
ployment rate has jumped to
a record 15.4% last month
and the state’s economy lost
527,000 jobs last month.
LeVine said that a jump in
new unemployment bene-
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
fi t claims last week — long
after most business closures
occurred — point to addi-
tional fraud attempts across
various industries.
“It is a broad spectrum of
employers in both the pub-
lic and the private sector who
have had this impacting their
employees,” LeVine said.
Over the past two months,
nearly 39 million people
nationwide have fi led for
unemployment aid due to
the economic impacts of the
coronavirus.
Washington state Gov.
Jay Inslee announced a four-
stage reopening plan earlier
this month, and has allowed
counties with fewer new
cases to apply to jump ahead
to the second stage, which
allows some businesses to
reopen, including dine-in
restaurants at half capacity.
Ten counties have already
been approved, and Inslee
announced Tuesday that 10
more counties are now eligi-
ble to apply.
More than 19,115 peo-
ple in Washington state have
tested positive for the coro-
navirus, and at least 1,044
have died. The virus causes
mild to moderate symp-
toms in most patients, and
the vast majority recover.
But it is highly contagious
and can cause severe illness
and death in some patients,
particularly the elderly and
those with underlying health
conditions.
Clatsop Post 12
VIRTUAL
CEREMONY
FOR
MEMORIAL
DAY
Available on
Facebook &
Youtube
Monday, June 25th
Find us at
American Legion
Clatsop Post 12
ASTORIA
AMERICAN LEGION
Clatsop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street
503-325-5771
HADEN
NOW OPEN
OUTDOOR
PATIO
Open for
Food & Drinks
FULL SERVICE BAR
& LIMITED
BAR MENU
11am - 7pm
GOLF
COURSE
8am - 8pm
OR E G ON LOT T E RY & K E N O
BEER & WINE AVAILABLE TO-GO
FOR GOLF COURSE PATRONS
WATCH FOR RESTAURANT TO REOPEN IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
503.738.5261 • 451 AVENUE U • SEASIDE, OR
From Head Start to High School Graduation
Always achieving academic success!
Congratulations on acceptance
to the Oregon State University
Forestry Program!
Receiving OSU Bridge to Success
Program along with many other
financial award scholarships!
Love and Best Wishes Always,
Grandpa and Grandma