Ohio Aiding Federal Government in Cutting Down on Food Stamp Fraud

Food stamps have been crucial for the 1.8 million Ohioans who need the assistance. Unfortunately, this meager supplement of $135 has been a prime target for dishonest individuals, who have scammed the state particularly hard.In cooperation with the federal government, Ohio is taking measures to cut down on fraudulent food-stamp usage.The buckeye state was chosen as an appropriate proving ground for new monitoring measures, after it was estimated that $30 million had already been stolen from the state.The plan revolves around a data-sharing network between Ohio and Washington state, which will be overseen by the federal agency responsible for the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, is pleased with the strategies' potential to rain in fraud.Concannon said, “By working together with the state and sharing state-of-the-art tools to prevent fraud on the recipient side, we’re better positioned to safeguard the taxpayer investment in this critical nutrition program.”Despite the significant abuse to the system in Ohio, fraud as a whole has been declining across the nation.When the SNAP program went electronic, changing from paper coupons to swipe cards, fraud accounted for only 1 percent of benefits when it had been 14 percent. However, that 1 percent still cost taxpayers $746 million, and scammers continue to find ways to exploit this more advanced system.Their trick is to sell their cards, either for cash or inappropriate items, and then report them lost to claim a new one. In 2011, Ohio auditor Dave Yost discovered that 485,880 electronic cards were reported missing in 2009 and 2010 alone.These individuals are certainly the root of Ohio’s fraud trouble, which the state and the USDA hope to expose through data mining. When searching data, officials will have loose criteria to spot a scam.Transactions will draw a red flag if they occur far from the recipient’s home, or if they take place in an area deemed a high risk for drugs and other non-food items. This method, the USDA claims, exposes the majority of food-stamp trafficking activities.