DOGE went looking for phone fraud at SSA — and found almost none

The anti-fraud tool set up last month after weeks of changes to the agency’s telephone policies has slowed retirement claim processing by 25% and led to a “degradation of public service,” according to an internal May document obtained by Nextgov/FCW that examined potentially cutting the anti-fraud tool for phone claims.

Under the new policy, the agency found that only two benefit claims out of over 110,000 had a high probability of being fraudulent — and they aren’t guaranteed to be so. Less than 1% of claims were flagged as even potentially fraudulent at all. 

Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE engineer, notably said during a March 27 interview on Fox News that 40% of phone calls made to SSA to change direct deposit information come from fraudsters. 

Musk repeated a similar claim that 40% of the agency’s calls were “fraudulent” during a speech in late March.