This is The Fraudcast, a special Watchdog.org podcast in partnership with our friends at Lexus Nexus and their Fraud Of The Day project.
Host Ben Yount sits down with Larry Benson from Fraud of the Day to talk about the origins of their project and how much public fraud there really is. At Fraud of the Day, Benson and his staff track local and national news from around the country to expose governmental waste, fraud and abuse.
Fraud in government is often an invisible crime, but in reality it is something that hurts everyone. Whether it's the theft of taxpayer dollars or the exposure of personal information in government databases to identity thieves, fraud in government is a serious problem that could affect just about everyone.
Why is there fraud in government? The same reason that criminal used to rob banks, says Benson: because that's where the money is.
This week's top three "frauds of the week" include $1 million in bogus tax refunds going to the Ukraine, massive Medicaid fraud in Louisiana and Social Security payments that continued for years and years after an elderly woman died.
