[AppyPappy]

No way one guy could invent 700 cops, complete with resumes, ssn, addresses, and phones that somehow only take messages, bank accounts to deposit the checks, etc, etc,

When an officer leaves, you don't terminate him, You just change the address and stop direct deposit.

[muawiyah]

Everybody remembers that shortly after the passage of Welfare Reform legislation this country was able to cut our welfare rolls in half.

What few people know is that this event coincided with the implementation of new mail forwarding requirements for presort-rate First-Class Mail.

Basically, any large mailer (e.g. a state welfare department mailing welfare checks) had to check USPS records to see if a forwarding order had been submitted by a recipient. There are private sector companies who provide computer based systems to allow this to be done at high speed.

Under an old federal regulation if a welfare recipient changes address, no payment is made until the recipient is seen by a caseworker.

Lo and behold millions of changes of address were found, payments were stopped, and no one showed up to see the caseworkers.

The primary source of welfare fraud was eliminated in one fell swoop!

Congress took credit.

[gopheraj]

Very true, but what happens when that cop files his tax return and the IRS says "hey, you forgot about the money worked here" and sends them a bill for taxes owed.

[konaice]

When an officer leaves, you don't terminate him, You just change the address and stop direct deposit.

Sounds like you have some skills in this area /grin

But the story said they NEVER existed. Pretty early yet.