Potential scammers complained on Twitter about being on a warrant list as the federal government intensifies its prosecution campaign of Covid relief fraud.

Pandemic-era relief programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) have been open targets for fraud, experts told the Daily Caller.

The exploitation of government financial programs have been so widespread that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had prosecuted 500 defendants by March 2022, according to a DOJ press release at the time.

That number appears set to grow larger as a number of social media users publicly bemoaned the DOJ’s recent uptick in PPP fraud prosecution.

“Yo … that PPP shit is real,” Tik Tok user J_Kyng_Enterprise said in a video series he posted to the platform. The first was posted Friday.

Kyng had been served by authorities roughly three years after receiving a PPP loan, he said in the video. “They got me man,” Kyng continued.

@j_kyng_enterprise I could be going away for a while #ppploan #loans #fed #viral #fyp ♬ original sound – j_kyng_enterprise

Kyng, a self-described convicted felon, admitted he knew what he claimed he did was wrong. (RELATED: Kamala’s Last-Ditch Pitch To Black Men Is A Dream For Scammers, Fraudsters)

“At the end of the day I knew what I was doing when I did it, I knew that there was a possibility that, you know, everything could go sideways,” he said in the video.

Kyng, a self-described father to four daughters, warned people against committing fraud.

“I don’t know what I was thinking back then when I decided I was gonna get that loan. I got served man. It’s not worth it now for everybody out there getting it,” he said in the video.

Kyng was hardly the only alleged fraudster.

The DOJ has issued press releases on four separate PPP fraud prosecutions in October alone.

In early October, law enforcement apprehended 42 members and associates of the California white supremacist gang SFV Peckerwoods, according to a DOJ press release. While their indictment listed 76 counts of alleged criminal activity, one of the most prominent charges listed was COVID-19 benefits and loan fraud.

At least three members of the gang turned in “false and fraudulent” PPP applications, the DOJ alleged. One suspect, 35-year-old Sean Craig Gluckman, allegedly obtained a fraudulent PPP loan worth $20,833.

Later in the month, the DOJ announced that Allstar Health Providers Inc. had agreed to pay $399,990 in restitution to resolve claims that they fraudulently received and retained multiple PPP loans.

Most recently, a pair of cases the DOJ announced Friday shows that their efforts are increasing.

The department slapped Georgia native Tyshion Nautese Hicks with a 12 year prison sentence after she orchestrated a sprawling Covid unemployment benefits scheme in which she and co-conspirators stole at least $30 million from the Georgia Department of Labor.

Another DOJ indictment announced the same day alleged Chicago’s Steven Cordell received $247,822.51 in fraudulent PPP loans.

While the DOJ steps up its prosecution efforts, social media users reacted to false reports of a “PPP loan warrant list.”

“They just dropped the PPP warrant list for 2024, they coming to get your ass,” a video from GrindFace TV, which has over 800,000 views on X, warned.

DO YOU KNOW someone on the list? Tell them to run 🏃‍♂️ them ppl are coming #grindfacetv
TT/ thereal.Jamessb pic.twitter.com/wTsInJEokC

— GrindFace TV (Entertainment) (@grindfacetv) October 24, 2024

That list, however, does not exist.

A follow up video from GrindFace showed a screen recording of a list where the creator claimed you can check the PPP warrant list from.

The screen recording he posted is of Pro Publica’s PPP Tracker, which simply lists all businesses that were approved for the loan. The list does not reference any arrest warrants.

In total, the government distributed $793 billion in PPP funding to at least 968,524 organizations. The program forgave $763 billion of the loans, according to Pro Publica.

Prosecutors allege that at least ten percent of the loan money went out the door to fraud, according to a report from Greenbaum Law. The organization reported that $800 billion was distributed.

The DOJ had recovered/seized $1.4 billion in stolen funds as of April, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, according to a department release.