Posted on 09/28/2025 5:37:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
GAO noted that available data understates the actual scale of SNAP theft, given that states are not required to report every occurrence, so many thefts go undisclosed.
A new Government Accountability Office report calls for the Agriculture Department to take stronger steps to assess how states are implementing security measures to prevent theft of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on electronic benefit transfer cards.
The report released Thursday found states use a range of tools recommended by USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to prevent theft but many of the measures require SNAP recipients to take individual action, "which can affect how widely they are used."
According to the GAO, SNAP benefits can be stolen by such methods as card skimming, card cloning, phishing and spoofing attacks, which involve tricking recipients into revealing personal information.
Fraudsters also pretend to be legitimate SNAP retailers to steal information and have been known to use bots to identify valid PIN combinations for accounts.
State SNAP agencies "replaced over $320 million in stolen benefits with federal funds for nearly 679,000 households in 52 states" during the period of October 2022 to December 2024, the report said.
"Theft of benefits could leave victims without means to purchase food, particularly since benefits stolen on or after December 21, 2024, are not eligible for replacement with federal funds," the GAO said.
However, the GAO noted that available data, in fact, understates the scale of SNAP theft, given that states are not required to report every occurrence.
The watchdog said that the secretary of Agriculture should "continually ensure that FNS comprehensively assesses the extent to which state SNAP agencies are implementing benefit theft prevention measures, including those it recommended, and use that assessment to consider how it can identify areas for improvement or additional assistance."
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
It’s okay, we can always raise taxes.
It’s okay, we can always raise taxes.
In my opinion, the entire program is theft. The federal government has no business funding this.
I understand that there is always a certain amount of theft in any enterprise but this is out of hand.
At this level of fraud, people need to be fired. Fire the people who designed a faulty system. Fire the people who should have been watching for fraud.
But of course no one will be fired. However, bonuses might be reduced this year. So there’s that. 🙁
As a side note, thank goodness for the people at the GAO. At least someone is paying attention.
How much ended up in Act Blue
Just Make the Rich pay their fair share. Easy Peasy
There’s nothing in the constitution giving it the authority to spend tax dollars on this. Early presidents and congresscritters understodd this, based on recorded meetings and debates over it in the late 1700’s - early 1800’s. And even after the civil war, IIRC.
If you find out that $100 is missing from your SNAP card, they can do nothing about it. They cant refund you because then everybody would just claim that their benefits were stolen. It would be chaos. This happened to an elderly neighbor of mine and I inquired about it. They would not tell me what store had redeemed the funds.
Somebody ping Bono or Sean Penn. I'm sure they'll come up with a number right off the top of their heads.
As I stated in a thread earlier in the week when Dr. Ben Carson was appointed to oversee this BS - SNAP needs a major overhaul!
And whoever was supposed to be watching the store should be escorted out of their office immediately!
At this level of fraud, people need to be fired. Fire the people who designed a faulty system. Fire the people who should have been watching for fraud.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Long prison terms with no parole possibility would be more appropriate.
And whoever was supposed to be watching the store should be escorted out of their office immediately and prosecuted.
Well the money is most likely to be put to better use. That’s a lot of obesity and diabetes that got eliminated.
Another hand out program that needs to end.
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