David Lam was an operations supervisor and claims specialist for the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) office, responsible for helping individuals establish their entitlement to U.S. Social Security benefits, including retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. It is a position that has access to millions of U.S. citizens personal identifying information (PII). Sensitive records that Lam exploited when he used the identities of recently deceased men in order to commit fraud. The scheme involved creating fake survivor benefit claims with no real basis and using the stolen PII to facilitate fraudulent benefits applications. It seems Lam did it to help women across Texas fraudulently collect over $3.3 million in government benefits. But he apparently wasn’t committing fraud purely for altruistic reasons. He himself collected over $3.3 million in government benefits!
Lam’s co-conspirators were women with children. Under his instruction, these women filed fraudulent survivor benefits applications listing recently deceased men as their children’s fathers or stepfathers. Lam provided these women with names, birth dates, death dates and Social Security numbers and directed them to tell Social Security administrators that their children had lived with the dead men at the time of their passing – a detail that would entitle a woman to receive benefits while raising their children as widows. And since Texas recognizes common-law marriage, Lam could ensure that the children qualified for Child Survivor Benefits as ‘stepchildren’ under the SSA records of the deceased men.
However, Lam’s women had no connection to the men listed on the applications and the deceased men did not father the children. Lam instructed the “widows” to split the stolen funds with him, via applications like Zelle, CashApp or Chime.
On June 6, 2025, Lam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and aggravated identity theft. He agreed to a full restitution of $3,346,280.
Great job by the Social Security Administration in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Ex-Social Security Employee Stole Dead Men’s Information to Help Women Receive Millions in Fraudulent Benefits: US Attorney” published by The Latin Times on June 6, 2026.
The employee aided multiple women in falsely claiming deceased men as fathers or stepfathers of their children A former Social Security Administration supervisor has pleaded guilty to stealing the identities of dead men to help women fraudulently collect over $3.3 million in government benefits, federal prosecutors announced this week.
David Lam, 45, of Pearland, Texas, previously worked as an operations supervisor and claims specialist at the SSA’s Houston office. While in that role, he exploited his access to sensitive records to steal the personal information of recently deceased men, KXXV reported.
