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I think it’s important to maintain curiosity rather than assume “pretty large scale fraud” here. It seems very likely that the vast majority of these old records are not actually receiving active benefits, and even the few that are may have valid reasons (ex living younger spouses).

https://xcancel.com/ThatsMauvelous/status/189135619250239902...

Not speaking for GP, but even if this story is 100% true, why would you think anyone would go to prison? Obviously, nobody wants to clog up the court system with cases like this, and the people are probably not wealthy enough to fine or even claw the money back. I would just expect it to be terminated. Fraud like this is almost never prosecuted.

The only exception I'd see is if there are people who have somehow gamed the system to collect multiple payments at once.

It's not a "large scale fraud". This is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_C._Conn?wprov=sfti1

His last name being "Conn" is very apt.