Elon Musk and fellow DOGE proponents’ assertions about revamping Social Security due to colossal fraud losses have been met with skepticism.

Fortune reports that Doge’s bid to transform the government’s main safety-net program, citing claims of it hemorrhaging vast sums to fraud, despite Musk’s team being denied permission to view official documents.

Musk, who had a humiliating screaming match with a Trump official, has boldly claimed that his team has unearthed weekly fraudulent entitlement payments totaling a staggering $100 billion, calling the situation ‘utterly insane. ‘.

During an April Fox News interview, Social Security department staffer Aram Moghaddassi concurred with Musk’s sentiment, stating that 40% of calls they receive about altering direct-deposit data are from tricksters. It comes after Trump issued a worrying seven-word attack,

“So when you want to change your bank account, you can call Social Security. We learned 40% of the calls that they get are from fraudsters,” revealed Moghaddassi on air. The sentiment was echoed by former Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who, during a podcast stint, insinuated that complaints about missing payments predominantly originate from swindlers.

The seal of the US Social Security Administration outside the agency’s headquarters in Woodlawn© Bloomberg via Getty Images

“The easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, cause whoever screams is the one stealing,” he advised on the All-In podcast, using his nonagenarian mother-in-law as someone unlikely to contact the government agency, reports the Mirror US.

However, according to Fortune – which referenced a government technology-focused news source, the actual frequency of phone-related fraud is minuscule, barely exceeding a fraction of 1%.

Nextgov/FCW snagged an internal scoop revealing that out of 110,000 Social Security claims, merely two have been identified as highly probable for fraud. The tech news site indicates less than 1% of claims are even slightly suspicious for fraudulent activity.

“No significant fraud has been detected from the flagged cases,” the secret insider paper revealed, says the tech news site.

The SSA’s defense for a policy shift in March spelled out that roughly “40 percent of Social Security direct deposit fraud is associated with someone calling SSA to change direct deposit bank information,” clarifying that it’s not a matter of 40% of all calls being shady. Fortune reported that DOGE kept mum when reached for a remark.

A Social Security rep dished to Fortune that from March 29 to April 26, the administration’s shiny new fraud-deterring toys waved red flags at 20,000 unique Social Security digits because “a direct deposit change was requested over the phone and failed a security measure.”

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They boasted that their scam-stopping tactics sidestepped $19.9 million in potential blows.

The agency is all about fine-tuning its fraud-busting tech to only nab claims that scream dodgy, according to the mouthpiece’s email.

An Inspector General bulletin from February dropped the bombshell that in fiscal year 2023, a mere 0.6% of total old-age and disability program payouts by Social Security were “overpayments.”

That term includes payments made in incorrect amounts when individuals fail to update their income details accurately or other retained information that would alter their eligibility – like residing in a nursing home.