The Department of Labor's Inspector General is warning of a new breed of online scammers, dubbed "fraudfluencers," who openly advertise their ability to exploit government programs and assist others in committing fraud, often taking a percentage of the illicit gains. Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony P. D’Esposito stated that these schemes are "a deliberate and public betrayal of every hardworking American who plays by the rules."
These "fraudfluencers" leverage social media platforms to normalize and glamorize criminal behavior, turning theft into a form of entertainment. D’Esposito emphasized that "fraud is not a trend or content; it’s theft of taxpayer dollars, and it will be prosecuted."
One notable case involves Britteny Egland, a former California Employment Development Department (EDD) contract employee. Egland used her social media accounts, with thousands of followers on Instagram and X, to solicit participants for her fraud schemes. She offered to help individuals exploit taxpayer-funded programs they were not eligible for by using insider knowledge and stolen identities to file fraudulent unemployment insurance, grant, and rent relief applications. Egland's posts boasted about potential earnings of "10-30K" and charged $150 to "check a claim."
Egland's activities resulted in the theft of $2.8 million from government coffers. In June 2025, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was subsequently sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to repay the stolen amount.
"What makes this increasingly dangerous is the growing effort by fraudsters on social media to glamorize and normalize stealing from their own communities — turning theft into entertainment and betrayal into a lifestyle," D’Esposito said. His office, in coordination with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, maintains a "zero tolerance" policy for such activities.
Egland's case is not an isolated incident. Investigators are observing a pattern of fraudsters using social media to promote their methods and build an audience around illicit activities. For example, Jonathan Dupiton of Atlanta, who used the motto "F.R.A.U.D is Dope" on his podcast, was convicted in April and sentenced to seven years in federal prison for using stolen identities to fraudulently obtain $3.8 million in unemployment insurance benefits from the same California EDD program.
Another case involved rapper Fontrell Antonio Baines, known as "Nuke Bizzle," who was sentenced to 77 months in federal prison in 2022. He exploited Pandemic Unemployment Assistance provisions under the CARES Act, meant to aid Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, and bragged about his $788,000 in illegal gains in a music video.
"The criminal mindset hasn’t changed — only the platform has," D’Esposito noted. "Today’s ‘Fraudfluencers’ make those mistakes in high definition. They steal from taxpayers, boast about it on social media, and leave a digital footprint our investigators can follow."
The White House Fraud Task Force was established, in part, to combat the widespread abuse of government programs and ensure taxpayer funds are not disbursed to fraudsters.