“911, what is the address of your fraud?” On March 8, 2025, California Highway Patrol (CHP) Erica Robins, along with her five co-conspirators, were taken into federal custody on a 10-count indictment alleging they fraudulently obtained millions of dollars in COVID-19 government unemployment benefits. From April 2020 to July 2022, Robins and her co-conspirators allegedly executed a scheme to collect personal information, including names and Social Security numbers, to file and receive fraudulent COVID-19 unemployment cash benefits falsely claiming that the applicants had lost jobs because of the pandemic. Turns out most of those identities never held a job!
In total, Robins and her team of fraudsters caused at least 293 applications for unemployment benefits to be filed, resulting in payouts of approximately $3.3 million. A closer examination shows that approximately 169 of the applications the defendants caused to be filed were for children under the age of 18. Approximately 106 of which were for children under the age of 10. The defendants also caused at least 17 COVID-19 job-loss claims to be submitted for individuals who were in fact incarcerated prisoners.
For her part in the scheme, Robins used her position as a California Highway Patrol dispatcher to query a law enforcement database containing Social Security numbers. She also asked her husband to help, who at the time was an inmate at the California Men’s Colony state prison. While incarcerated, Ronald Robins collected Social Security numbers and dates of birth from other inmates to be used in the scheme.
Excellent job by the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in this case.
Today’s Fraud of the Day is based on article “Compton CHP dispatcher used law enforcement database in $3.3M fraud scheme, feds say” published by KCAL News on March 8, 2025.
A California Highway Patrol dispatcher allegedly used a law enforcement database to find a prison inmate’s personal ID information — using it to fraudulently obtain COVID jobless benefits as part of a larger $3.3 million fraud scheme involving four other people, prosecutors said.
Erica Abson Robins, a 57-year-old Compton resident, is facing federal charges alongside her husband, Ronald Lee Robins, 62, who is currently incarcerated at the same prison as the inmate whose information she allegedly stole, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. He is serving time in state prison for first-degree burglary. While incarcerated, Robins allegedly collected the Social Security numbers and dates of birth of other inmates, which prosecutors say were then used by two other defendants to obtain COVID jobless benefits.
