In California this month, investigators uncovered a massive "ghost fleet"—hundreds of businesses registered with the state using "Golden IDs." These aren't just stolen Social Security numbers; they belong to people who have left the country, meaning the "owner" of the company doesn't even know it exists, and they aren't around to check the mail when the debt collectors Come Calling.

We're looking at the numbers from the GAO—which estimate that fraud is now effectively the sixth-largest "agency" in the federal government. We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars. We’re also going to look at why your local Secretary of State might legally be forbidden from double-checking who is actually filing those papers.

Accountability Office—the GAO—the federal government is losing between $233 billion and $521 billion every s ...