Obamaphone Fraud as High as 65%

A massive portion of Obamaphone recipients are receiving the benefit after lying on their applications, according to a new 90-page report from the Government Accountability Office.

An undercover sting operation showed ineligible applications were approved 63 percent of the time, and a review found that 36 to 65 percent of beneficiaries in various categories had lied in easily detectable ways but were approved anyway.

The GAO reports that after basic eligibility checks were instituted, the cellphones-for-the-poor program shrunk by a third, from $2.2 billion to $1.5 billion. In the 30 days following the addition of meager but previously absent anti-fraud measures, monthly payments dropped $40 million. Incredibly, the 65 percent rate of easily detectable fraud is what remained after those huge numbers of fraudsters dropped off the rolls.

The GAO undercover investigators applied for free government phones 19 times using criteria that should have been rejected, and “we were approved to receive Lifeline services by 12 of the 19 Lifeline providers using fictitious eligibility documentation.”

All someone has to do to apply for free cellphone service is say that they are on another welfare program, such as food stamps or disability, known as SSI. (Read more from “Obamaphone Fraud as High as 65%” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/07/obamaphone-fraud-high-65/