NY Times: Domestic Abuse Fraud: It’s Rarely Suspected and Rarely Detected

By Men's Activism News | Source | November 1, 2009

Article here. Excerpt:

'In the city’s rich history of fraud schemes, the cases described this week by the city’s Department of Investigation would not seem to rank up there with mortgage scams or fake Medicare patients: Six women were accused of posing as victims of domestic violence to gain subsidized housing.

Such cases are so rare, and the issue so sensitive, that city officials and advocates for domestic violence victims said that they are not usually on the lookout for fraud when people come forward with claims of abuse.
...
No documentation is required to prove abuse, said Barbara Brancaccio, a spokeswoman for the city’s Human Resources Administration, which operates domestic violence shelters.

At the shelters, employees occasionally discover that women have exaggerated their abuse, but they are not forced to leave the facilities, Ms. Brancaccio said.
...
That said, the system is not “set up to catch people,” she said, adding that she has never encountered a case of fraud.'