FCC Warns of Clampdown on Lifeline Fraud
The FCC Office of Inspector General issued a general warning against Lifeline fraud Tuesday. OIG said a common scam is to manipulate someone’s name or identity to get extra payments. “OIG has seen thousands of examples of ‘female juniors’ among…
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Lifeline enrollments,” the office said. “Another fraudulent practice involves adding an individual’s middle initials to either the first name or last name fields … to create fraudulent enrollments.” Address manipulation is also common, OIG said: “One vacant lot in Detroit was used by a carrier as the home address of nearly two hundred Lifeline subscribers.” Lifeline abuse won’t be tolerated, the warning said: This advisory is “to alert and educate Lifeline stakeholders and the public about some of the techniques used to perpetrate fraud we have learned about during our investigations. OIG ... will continue to use a full-range of tools to expose and combat fraud, waste, and abuse in USF programs.”