Woman made $320K selling fake Social Security and COVID documents on Facebook, feds say
A North Carolina woman ran a business selling hundreds of fake documents — including Social Security cards, COVID-19 vaccine cards and driver’s licenses — over Facebook, federal prosecutors said
Chaiya Maley-Jackson, 23, of Charlotte, advertised the documents she’d create herself through her business, Diva Documents, on the social media platform and on two business websites, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
In less than three years, Maley-Jackson earned more than $320,000 from her fraud scheme, selling 400 Social Security cards, eight driver’s licenses and six COVID-19 vaccine cards, prosecutors said.
On her personal Facebook under the name “Yaya Flowers,” she advertised how she could also create and sell “digital and hard copies” of fake pay stubs, lease agreements, COVID-19 hardship letters, bank statements, W2 forms, 1099 forms and insurance cards, according to prosecutors and court documents.
Once Maley-Jackson was finished creating documents, she mailed them or sent them over email to customers, who paid her through Cash App, Zelle, PayPal, Apple Pay and Venmo, court documents say.
She’d charge customers fees of varying prices, including $15 for editing a pay stub and up to $150 for a fake driver’s license, according to prosecutors, who said she required them to pay half of the price upfront before her work was completed.
On Oct. 18, Maley-Jackson pleaded guilty in U.S. district court in Charlotte to unlawful production of a false identification document, the attorney’s office announced in a news release.
McClatchy News contacted two federal public defenders representing Maley-Jackson for comment on Oct. 19 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
Prosecutors said Maley-Jackson knew her customers would use the fake documents she sold to them to apply for federal COVID-19 relief loans, car loans, apartment rentals and more, prosecutors said.
After pleading guilty, a judge released her on bond, according to prosecutors.
The charge of unlawful production of a false identification document carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, the release said.
Maley-Jackson is due back in court for a sentencing hearing which hasn’t been scheduled yet, prosecutors said.
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