WASHINGTON — They don’t even try to hide it.
The rise of so-called “fraud-fluencers” who openly brag online about swindling money from taxpayers and encourage their followers to do the same has alarmed good government crusaders.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who helms the DOGE Caucus, is urging the Trump administration to both turn up the heat on “fraud-fluencers” and study their tactics.
“Scammers I’ve deemed ‘fraud-fluencers’ are putting the ‘con’ in online content and flooding their followers’ feeds with step-by-step guides on how to exploit government programs and steal your hard-earned taxpayer dollars,” Ernst explained to The Post.
“If these fraud-fluencers want to be famous, I’m happy to make their wish come true by sharing their posts with the investigators at GAO [Government Accountability Office],” she went on. “We’ve got to ratio the folks running these rackets and make their next profile pic a mugshot.”
Below are examples of some of the most brazen fraud-fluencers to hit Ernst’s radar.
Rapper thief
In a 2020 YouTube video that garnered more than half a million views six years ago, Memphis-born rapper Nuke Bizzle (real name Fontrell Antonio Baines) crowed about ripping off tens of thousands in your money.
“And I just woke up to 300 Gs. Stole 60K off an SBA. It’s time to ball like the NBA,” he rapped. “I’m swiping 10K a day. Counting up bills like a CPA.”
The rap he performed was titled “EDD,” short for “Employment Development Department.”
The Justice Department charged Baines that October with stealing $1.2 million in unemployment benefits using other people’s identities.
He ultimately pleaded guilty in July 2022 to one count of mail fraud as well as unrelated drug and weapons charges. He was sentenced that December to six years and five months in prison.
Illegal immigrant moocher
Leonel Moreno, a Venezuelan TikToker, openly boasted of sneaking into the US illegally thanks to “Papa Biden” and encouraged other migrants to do the same.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work,” Moreno explained in one post while flashing a wad of $100 bills.
Moreno was later deported by the Trump administration.
‘FRAUD is Dope’ podcaster
In April, the Feds threw Georgia native Jonathan Dupiton back in jail for allegedly trying to steal benefits through stolen identities.
Dupiton had a podcast with the motto “F.R.A.U.D. [Finally Rich After Unstoppable Determination] is Dope.” He was already in a halfway house after his conviction in a food stamp swindle when he took at least $3 million in unemployment benefits under false pretenses.
After admitting to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud as well as aggravated identity theft, Dupiton was sentenced to seven more years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
‘People just selling SBA information’
Ernst also cited the curious case of Miami-based Danielle Miller, who flatly told New York Magazine in February 2022 that “I more so consider myself a con artist than anything.”
Miller fleeced more than $1 million from the Small Business Administration and lived large, sporting Chanel, Gucci, Prada, and other posh brands while private jetting around the world when she wasn’t driving a Rolls-Royce convertible.
“You can literally go to a dot-com website … and join a group of scammers, and they’re all just bragging and sending pictures,” she told the outlet. “[T]here’s a bunch of chats of people just selling SBA information. It’s really right at your f—ing fingertips.”
In September 2023, a Boston federal judge sentenced Miller to five years in prison after she pleaded guilty that March to wire fraud and identity theft.
This past December, a Florida judge sentenced the social media influencer to 16 years behind bars on Sunshine State bank fraud charges.
‘Eva & Her Minions’
The hosts of the YouTube show “Behold Eva & Her Minions” complained about the trauma they went through after being arrested in early 2019 for stealing nearly $94,000 in Social Security benefits.
Billy Altidor and Evanie (Eva) Louis, both of Florida had flaunted their lavish lifestyle on YouTube.
In a video titled, “We were arrested,” the pair somewhat copped to their mistakes, claiming they were not perfect.
Altidor was sentenced in March 2020 to two years in prison, while Louis received a year and a day for theft of government fund and identity theft.
‘You better start lying’
Louisianan Koya Unek bragged on TikTok about fibbing to get $35,000 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by feigning homelessness.
“People be like, ‘Girl, how do you get food stamps? I wish I could get food stamps.’ Bitch, you better start lying,” Unek told her TikTok viewers.
“If it’s free, I want it,” she said. “Who wants to keep spending money on food? It’s too much.”
Unfortunately for Unek, the cops saw her video, too and arrested her on fraud charges last year. The case remains pending.
