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Saturday, August 23, 2014

Food stamps sold online for art, housing and cash

States, feds fail to detect most fraud in plain sight on Web

Food stamp recipients were selling their benefits online in exchange for money, housing or even art, according to a report federal investigators released Thursday that showed states manage to catch just a fraction of potential fraud in the sprawling program.

Use of the food stamps, now officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, has skyrocketed under President Obama, reaching 47 million recipients at a cost of $76 billion last year. But states recovered just $74 million in fraudulent payments the previous year, according to the Government Accountability Office.

GAO investigators reviewed records from 11 states and found they lacked sufficient staff and tools to catch fraud in the ballooning program.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our tax dollars hard at work...

Anonymous said...

Nothing new here , sometimes even traded for dope.

Anonymous said...

Fraud and criminal.

Anonymous said...

Stop and think people....if food stamps are being traded for ART...is this your average poor single family food stamp user? It has to be someone in the agency responsible for distribution of the cards.