The Department of Government Efficiency( DOGE) issued a new update in its ongoing audit of the Social Security Administration (SSA). This program has been a significant focus for the department, and DOGE has issued weekly updates on its findings on X. In a post about the Social Security matter, DOGE announced a significant change to how the SSA will deal with loans to cut down on fraud.
The investigation began when Elon Musk reacted to the massive number of Social Security numbers over 120 years old. He posted, “According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE! Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣.”
DOGE replied to this post, explaining the significance of these ‘vampires.’ The department posted, “In 2020-2021, @SBAgov issued 3,095 loans, including PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) and EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loan), for $333M to borrowers over 115 years old who were still marked as alive in the Social Security database. In one case, a 157 years old individual received $36k in loans.”
Nearly a month after Musk’s initial post, DOGE announced that on March 23, 2024, they had made a significant move to close this loophole. They said, “As of Friday, @SBAgov now: – Requires date of birth collection for all direct loan applications – Pauses the direct loan process for those under 18 and above 120 years old. Basic sanity checks like these are initial steps toward minimizing fraud in government payment programs.”
While most of the response to these moves was positive, some woke activists were enraged. On February 17, 2025, Adam Schiff took to X to make his ill-intentioned post. He said, “Elon Musk is trying to access your personal bank and tax data. The world’s richest man should not and cannot be able to snoop around your personal finances. Period. End of story.”
Other comments under the post were much more positive. Many were baffled that this was a new policy. A comment read, “Wait… so until now, the SBA didn’t check if someone was under 18 or over 120 before giving out loans? No wonder fraud ran wild. The real question is, how much taxpayer money vanished before they added these basic sanity checks? 💸🤦♂️”
Others explained why DOGE is so important. One reply read, “This is exactly why accountability matters. The fact that SBA handed out $333M to applicants over 115—including a 157-year-old ghost—proves how broken the system was. Basic age verification should’ve been standard from day one, not an afterthought.”
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A comment hoped for accountability for the people involved in these massive scams. It read, “Hopefully @FBIDirectorKash @PamBondi can track down the fraud recipients and hold all accountable along with the department supervisors who approved and signed off on the fraud. I know so many small businesses that failed because they couldn’t get approved for a small business loan or PPP loans under COVID
Watch Trump call out the “vampire” data below: