Government’s Free Phone Program Riddled With Abuse, Fraud
November 6, 2014 11:15 PM
By Brian Maass
CBS4 Investigates
DENVER (CBS4) – A federally regulated program providing free cellphone service and phones to the poor and needy in Denver appears to be riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, according to an undercover CBS4 Investigation.
The $2 billion a year Lifeline program has handed out more than 13 million free cellphone plans across the country in the first six months of this year. In Colorado, the program handed out more than 117,000 free cellphone plans in the first half of this year, or about 20,000 cellphones every month.
The free phones and their wireless plans are paid for by a monthly tax on your cellphone, called the Universal Service Tax. Although the Lifeline wireless program has been around since 2005 and started under president George W. Bush, it has exploded under President Obama’s administration and the phones are often referred to as “Obamaphones.”
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/11/06/governments-free-phone-program-riddled-with-abuse-fraud/
Many of them are applied for in the name of grandma or grandpa who have no intention of using it, and probably don’t even know they applied for it. The phones end up with extended family members.
…seems to be working just as designed
! wounder how many crimes were committed by people use those phones
It comes down to economics.
Give the folks from the hood a phone, or they’re going to steal yours.
Just like welfare, section 8 housing, EBT cards etc.. its cheaper to give them the 3k per month in ‘entitlements’ than to arrest them, prosecute them, and incarcerate them.