If you’ve spent any time on X lately, you’ve probably seen the headlines. Elon Musk, now wielding significant influence through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been sounding the alarm on what he calls "the biggest fraud in history." He isn't talking about crypto or corporate embezzlement. He’s talking about your retirement.
The narrative around musk social security fraud allegations is honestly a mess of data points, 1970s computer code, and political firestorms. Some people are convinced the system is being looted by "ghost" beneficiaries and non-citizens. Others say the "fraud" is a manufactured crisis designed to justify deep cuts to benefits.
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But what’s actually happening behind the scenes at the Social Security Administration (SSA)?
Why Musk thinks the system is broken
The spark that lit this fire was a chart Musk shared showing roughly 398 million "eligible" Social Security numbers in the database. Considering the U.S. population is only about 341 million, the math looks suspicious at first glance. Musk’s take? There are millions of "fraudulent" records being used to siphon off taxpayer money.
He also claimed that 40% of the phone calls coming into the SSA are fraudulent. That’s a staggering number. If nearly half of all interactions with a government agency are scams, we’ve got a systemic collapse on our hands.
The problem is that the "40%" figure appears to be a misunderstanding of how the SSA tracks data. The agency actually reported that 40% of confirmed direct deposit fraud cases originated from phone calls. That is a massive difference from saying 40% of all calls are scams. It’s like saying 40% of bank robberies involve a getaway car, and then concluding that 40% of all cars on the road are being used by bank robbers.
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The ghost in the machine: COBOL and 150-year-olds
One of the more dramatic claims involves the "dead people" receiving checks. Musk and others have pointed to records showing people born in the 1800s—effectively 150-year-olds—who are still listed as "active" in the system.
Honestly, this isn't a secret cabal of vampires cashing checks. It’s a coding quirk.
The SSA still runs on COBOL, a programming language from the 1960s. When a birth date is missing or a record is corrupted, the system often defaults to a specific reference point. This makes it look like there are millions of centenarians roaming the halls of the SSA.
According to a 2023 report from the Office of Audit, there are about 13.3 million Social Security numbers associated with people born before 1906 with no record of death. But here’s the kicker: very few of them are actually getting paid. In December 2024, the SSA only sent payments to about 89,106 people aged 99 or older.
Breaking down the "Improper Payments"
- The $72 Billion Figure: Critics often cite $71.8 billion in "improper payments" between 2015 and 2022.
- Most are Overpayments: The vast majority of these weren't fraud. They were overpayments to living people who didn't report a change in income or simple administrative errors.
- The Actual Fraud Rate: Official audits put the actual fraud rate at a tiny fraction of 1%. We're talking 0.0018% in some specific categories.
The immigrant controversy and "Max Inclusion"
The conversation around musk social security fraud often veers into immigration. Musk and his DOGE team recently showed a chart claiming over 5 million non-citizens were issued Social Security numbers between 2021 and 2025.
This is technically true but lacks context. Non-citizens can get Social Security numbers if they have legal work authorization (like asylum seekers or those with green cards). Having a number lets them work and pay taxes. It does not mean they get to collect retirement benefits.
In fact, undocumented immigrants who don't have a legal number often use "ghost" numbers to work. This means they pay into the system—roughly $20 billion a year—but will never see a dime in return. They are essentially subsidizing the retirement of U.S. citizens.
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What happened when they tried to fix it?
In early 2025, the SSA implemented new anti-fraud checks for phone claims at the urging of the DOGE team. They added identity-proofing steps and a three-day hold on certain transactions.
The result? Out of 110,000 cases flagged, the agency found exactly two cases of potential fraud.
Meanwhile, the new rules slowed down claim processing by 25%. Seniors who had worked their whole lives were suddenly stuck on hold for hours or told they had to visit a physical office—which is a major hurdle if you're 85 and don't drive.
A federal judge eventually stepped in. In March 2025, Judge Ellen Hollander issued a temporary restraining order blocking the DOGE team from accessing sensitive, non-anonymized Social Security data. The court argued that giving a private group of billionaire-led "volunteers" access to the PII (Personally Identifiable Information) of millions of Americans was a massive privacy risk.
Actionable insights for your benefits
Despite the noise, Social Security isn't going away tomorrow. But the landscape is shifting. If you’re worried about how these investigations might affect your checks, here’s what you should actually do:
- Monitor your My Social Security account. Don’t wait for a letter in the mail. Check your online portal regularly to ensure your direct deposit information hasn't been tampered with.
- Expect longer wait times. If you need to change your bank info or file a new claim, do it well in advance. The new "anti-fraud" layers are making the process clunkier.
- Keep your records paper-trail ready. If you are ever flagged as "potentially deceased" (it happens more than you'd think during these audits), you’ll need a birth certificate and a valid ID to "resurrect" your status at a local office.
- Ignore the "Ponzi Scheme" rhetoric. While the trust fund does face a long-term solvency issue (projected to hit a wall by 2035), calling it a Ponzi scheme is more of a political stance than a financial reality. The system can be made solvent again by adjusting the taxable income cap.
The hunt for musk social security fraud has certainly exposed some technical debt in our government systems. The COBOL code needs an update, and the databases need a good scrub. But the "epidemic" of fraud seems to be more about a handful of outliers and a lot of old software than a coordinated heist of the American retirement fund.
Keep an eye on the court cases involving DOGE and the SSA. Those rulings will determine how much of your private data stays private and how much "efficiency" will actually cost the average retiree.