Australian gov't welfare agency trawls through social media to catch cheats

Australia's government welfare agency Centrelink has taken to monitoring social media to identify fraudsters.

The federal government confirmed to Fairfax Media that the agency has employed contractors to trawl through social media accounts of welfare recipients.

They have uncovered more than 1.4 million U.S. dollars in fraud using this method.

Contractors are looking for any indication that recipients have lied about their income, their marital status or whether they have dependents (children living at home).

According to the Department of Human Services, Centrelink's governing body, one couple who claimed they were both single to receive single payments were caught out when they posted on social media that they were dating and expecting a child.

Furthermore at least 1.2 million U.S. dollars in fraud has been discovered by investigators monitoring the popular online auction website, eBay.

Welfare recipients using the website to sell assorted items in many cases failed to declare the sale price as income so as not to effect their welfare payments.

The initiative has resulted in 1,888 cases of overpayment and five arrests for failing to attend court for welfare fraud offenses, according to Minister for Human Services Stuart Robert.

"While most people receiving welfare payments are honest and do the right thing, there is a small segment of the community who still think it is okay to cheat the system," Robert said in comments published on Thursday.

"Taskforce Integrity will continue to collaborate with its partner agencies to meet the challenges posed by welfare fraud and ensure those individuals who deliberately defraud the system are caught."

Monitoring social media as a method of covert surveillance has been credited for the federal government cutting spending on undercover operations to catch welfare cheats by half in 2014. Enditem