This Minnesota woman stole $360K from Social Security by pretending to be her dead mother for ‘literal decades’ — does this prove Elon Musk is correct about widespread fraud in the system?

Social Security scams

According to think tank Brookings, before the DOGE cost-cutting team made a target out of Social Security fraud, fraudulent payouts were an extremely small problem for the SSA.

“Claims of widespread fraud in Social Security were misleading, with fraud representing just 0.00625% of the annual budget, far less than what private companies like Mastercard or Visa would accept,” said the report dated March 26 of this year.

DOGE, or the Department of Government Efficiency, run by Elon Musk, is responsible for finding “fraud and waste” across government programs, but with Social Security, he may be looking in the wrong place. The inspector general found in 2021 that over the previous two decades, about $300 million in benefits was paid to Social Security recipients after their deaths. Of that, about one-third was recovered.

Musk claimed on Feb. 16 of this year that the SSA was still paying benefits to millions of deceased Amercians, using a chart from the SSA’s Numident database. Fact checkers responded immediately to clarify that the table Musk posted on his social media did not provide evidence that payments were going to beneficiaries who were long dead — or to those impersonating them.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek released a statement following Musk’s post. “The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”

DOGE and the White House continued to muddy the waters, however, with the president repeating Musk’s false claim two weeks later.

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The success rate of SSA scams

As reported in The Hill, the SSA receives 80 million calls a year from citizens on its 1-800 number. JD Vance and Musk have both claimed that 40% of those calls, which would total 32 million, are from “fraudsters who steal your direct deposits.”

The Washington Post reports that only one in every 3,100 calls succeeds — briefly — in direct deposit fraud, accounting for 0.032% of all calls to the 1-800 number.

They further found that for every successful attempt at direct deposit fraud, five attempts were prevented by SSA staff. However, 7,000 SSA workers were laid off in early April, and more cuts are planned. Critics of DOGE and the administration note that this will mean SSA offices will be severely understaffed, and many will have to close. For seniors with limited mobility issues, or who already face economic barriers, they may have to travel hundreds of miles to visit a Social Security office in the future.

Current stats on Social Security

About 69 million people in the US currently receive Social Security benefits. The Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program reports a payment accuracy rate of 99.7%.

The SSA further reports that the majority of improper payments paid out actually go to eligible beneficiaries, but are incidents of mistakes or delays, resulting in incorrect payment amounts.

Their data also show that, contrary to claims from Musk, only 0.1% of Social Security benefits are paid to those over 100 years old. The SSA already has dedicated processes in place to prevent benefits from going to those who have died. They use data from state agencies, funeral home directors, and financial institutions to keep their records up-to-date, as well as comparing whether beneficiaries are using other programs like Medicare.

So while fraud happens, stories like Mavious Redmond’s are newsworthy precisely because they’re so rare. The millions of Americans who rely on Social Security should not face cuts to their services to prevent a few clever fraudsters from collecting illegal payments.