Fraud Prevention Alert: Pre-Award Vetting Using Data Analytics Could Have Prevented Over $79B in Potentially Fraudulent Pandemic Relief Payments

This PRAC fraud prevention alert focused on some of the largest pandemic relief programs: the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (COVID-19 EIDL) program and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) pandemic-related Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs. In 2023, the SBA Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the DOL OIG estimated that the total amount of fraud and improper payments for these programs is nearly $400 billion. In this alert, the PRAC estimates the amount of potential fraud across these programs stemming from the use of stolen or invalid Social Security numbers (SSNs), and illustrates how pre-award vetting using the PRAC’s data analytics tools could have mitigated this risk.