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Stealing Social Security benefits of someone who died
A rather macabre report by WHIO (OH) reporter Kate Bartley reveals a disturbing trend of Social Security fraud – concealing a beneficiary’s death in order to steal the deceased’s Social Security benefits. In this case an Ohio woman’s granddaughter discovered and reported that another family member was cashing her deceased grandmother’s Social Security checks. According to Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General, the OIG’s office investigates hundreds of similar cases each year, noting that this is a serious and fraudulent Federal crime which will result in imprisonment. And an interesting side note: One of the methods used by Social Security to discover such cases is to review records to see if a beneficiary has stopped using Medicare for a long time but is still collecting Social Security, a clue which may indicate fraud. Click here to read the WHIO story by Kate Bartley.