Workers compensation as the new Nigerian prince

A workers compensation claim doesn’t ever mean you’re winning in life, and a woman in North Carolina was quick to see that when she got a suspicious text telling her that said she had won thousands of dollars in a workers comp claim.

Problem was, she was never injured at work, she told an Action 9 news station reporter investigating a scam that the U.S. Department of Labor has claimed “has been happening a lot recently,” according to the news segment.

Lamara Short said the text came from a “workers compensation appeal board” and it was congratulating her, saying she was “eligible to claim up to $62,000.00 or more.” It said she was the “luckiest winner.”

She’s lucky she didn’t fall for it, as the Department of Labor, in a fraud notice on its website, says many have been scammed by entities “trying to gain access to individuals’ financial and other private information. Individuals, living both within the United States and overseas, have been contacted and informed that their name is on “a list” for the receipt of benefits.”