Local News in Brief : Welfare Fraud Line Saves $1 Million

Telephone hot lines aimed at curbing welfare fraud in Los Angeles County have helped lead to detection of more than $1 million in welfare overpayments in the first year in operation.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Eddy Tanaka, director of the Department of Public Social Services, said that more than 148 welfare fraud cases were uncovered after citizen calls to 1-800-87-FRAUD and 213-749-4266. In all, 14,275 calls have been made to the county-run hot lines since they began last March, they said.

“This has certainly been a big success, even bigger than any of us had ever expected,” said Bill King, vice president of WeTip, a nonprofit crime-fighting group.

The fraud hot line informant’s reward program was started with the help of WeTip and offers $100 rewards to informants in cases of proven fraud. Antonovich said only 12% of the callers have requested the reward, and 45 informants have been paid so far.