In September, the Fund the Excluded Workers coalition, which consists of more than 100 community-based organizations, alerted the community about a website that was pretending to be them and was asking for donations to “continue their efforts.” This is not the first time that campaigns masquerading as the Excluded Workers Fund have emerged. “I blocked her because I do not like fraudulent things,” she said. Like Xotchil, many community members told us that the messages had been sent to them in WhatsApp groups or by some of their friends, who, supposedly, had to share it with ten people so that they could have a higher chance of receiving the money.Ĭarmen, a 39-year-old Dominican who immigrated to the Bronx six years ago, said that she had received it from her aunt. She does not know the person who sent it, but added that “many left the group chat after the message was delivered.” They don’t want that to happen now, so they apply right away because they don’t want to lose that help,” Xochitl said. Many in the community thought that the Excluded Workers Fund was not real at the beginning, and ended up applying late. “They are taking advantage of the people.
This included immigrants without legal statuses. One of the fraudulent campaigns mimics the wording of the Excluded Workers Fund (EWF), which is a New York State program that provided financial assistance of up to 15,600 to 130,000 New Yorkers previously excluded from unemployment benefits or Covid assistance programs. We analyzed more than 25 messages from our WhatsApp community members who were told to “share this help” with ten friends and family members so that they, too, could apply for financial assistance that does not exist.
The message asked people to share with 10 people via WhatsApp in order to be verified and receive $800 dollars.
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