The Nation - News from March 12, 1986

Thousands of tips slipped to the government over a toll-free fraud hot line have saved taxpayers millions of dollars in the last seven years, the General Accounting Office said. In a report on the effectiveness of the fraud hot line it operates, the agency said 74,000 calls were received between Jan. 18, 1979--when the line 800-424-5454 opened--and Jan. 17 of this year, including one that revealed a Cabinet member’s wife was using a government car to go grocery shopping.