Fraudsters have been shameless in their attempts to claim counterfeit benefits by sending photoshopped images to suggest they live in the UK despite being abroad.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was overwhelmed with thousands of counterfeit documents in a period which it described as a "surge in Universal Credit" claims.
The DWP's counter fraud regional office, which is based in Newcastle, has been working through the claims, where digital forensic analysts and investigators have been combatting the dodgy claims which reached £8.6bn last year.
