OFF BEAT: YouTube helps catch disability fraud to tune of $21 million

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Smile, you're on disability fraud camera.

Officials at the Utah Attorney General's Office and federal Office of Inspector General for the Social Security Administration said in a statement this month that surveillance footage and YouTube videos collected by their joint investigative task force helped the SSA deny 157 fraudulent disability claims, saving more than $21.4 million in federal tax dollars.

The more egregious examples of disability fakery highlighted in the agencies' statement included a 40-year-old man caught on YouTube donning a home-made robot costume and dancing to Steppenwolf's “Magic Carpet Ride,” after collecting nearly 18 years worth of disability benefits for depression, anxiety, asthma, obesity and sore muscles.

“The partnership between the Attorney General's Office and Social Security Administration has been a huge benefit for taxpayers,” Utah Attorney General John Swallow said in the statement, issued April 2. “For every dollar spent to investigate fraud, we recover $10 for taxpayers.”