7,000stolen identities used
A Detroit man bought Social Security numbers for roughly 7,000 identity theft victims on the dark web, then used them to collect free government phones he resold for profit.
Dewan Williams filed nearly 3,000 fraudulent Medicaid applications with the stolen identities to make them appear eligible for Lifeline phones, costing Michigan $11 million before the accounts were caught. He was sentenced in 2023 to 2 to 20 years.
Source: Michigan Department of Attorney General · Michigan Department of Attorney General. Read more: lifeline phone subsidy fraud · case file