To report SNAP fraud, file a tip with the USDA Office of Inspector General online at hotline.oig.usda.gov, by phone at 1-800-424-9121 (or 202-690-1622 in Washington, D.C.), or by mail to USDA Office of Inspector General, P.O. Box 23399, Washington, DC 20026-3399. You can also report through your state SNAP agency, which you can find on the interactive map at fns.usda.gov/fraud. You may file anonymously.
Federal or State: Where Your Tip Belongs
The right channel depends on who you’re reporting.
The USDA OIG handles retailer fraud, large trafficking operations, and cases involving USDA employees or contractors. If your tip is about a store, that’s the federal channel.
State agencies handle investigations of individual recipients, including people who lie about income or household composition to qualify for benefits or receive a larger allotment. If your tip is about a neighbor, family member, or acquaintance, start with the state.
If you’re not sure, pick whichever is easier. Reports sent to the wrong agency are generally forwarded, not discarded.
What to Write Down Before You File
A specific tip is far easier to investigate than a general accusation. Before you submit, put the following in writing:
- Who: Names and addresses of the people or businesses involved. For a store, include the store name and location.
- What: A concrete description of what you saw or learned. “She sold her EBT card balance for cash” is more useful than “she’s cheating the system.”
- When and where: Dates, times, and locations. Approximate dates still help narrow an investigation.
- Supporting details: For income fraud, anything you know about the person’s employer, type of work, or unreported household members. For trafficking, the dollar amounts involved and how the exchange happened.
Photos, screenshots, or text messages strengthen a report, but don’t hold off filing because you lack physical evidence. Investigators can pull EBT transaction records, wage match data, and other records to corroborate a credible tip on their own.
Anonymous, Confidential, or Named
When you file with the USDA OIG, you choose one of three identity levels, and the choice affects what investigators can do with your tip.
- Anonymous: The OIG doesn’t know who you are. They can’t follow up for clarification, can’t ask for more evidence, and can’t tell you what happened.
- Confidential: The OIG knows your identity but keeps it out of referral documents sent to outside investigators. Under the Inspector General Act, they won’t reveal your name unless the Inspector General determines disclosure is unavoidable, and they must notify you first if that happens.
- Named: Your identity can be shared with investigators and used in proceedings.
Confidential works well for most people. You keep your identity out of the file while remaining reachable if investigators need more from you.
What Counts as SNAP Fraud
Before filing, make sure what you saw actually falls within the program’s fraud definitions. SNAP fraud splits into recipient fraud and retailer fraud.
Recipient Fraud
The most common form is misrepresenting a household to qualify for benefits or receive a larger allotment: lying about income, hiding employment, failing to report someone living in the household, or concealing assets like bank accounts or property. Collecting benefits in more than one state at the same time, or under multiple names, also counts.
Trafficking is more serious. It covers exchanging SNAP benefits for cash or non-food items. Selling an EBT card balance at a discount, placing an online grocery order for someone else in exchange for cash, or swapping benefits for services are all trafficking.
Retailer Fraud
Authorized stores commit fraud by giving customers cash for EBT transactions, ringing up ineligible items like alcohol or tobacco as eligible groceries, or lying on the SNAP authorization application about what they sell. A smoke shop that accepts SNAP despite carrying little or no food is the kind of red flag worth reporting.
What Happens After You File
The receiving agency reviews your report alongside EBT transaction records, wage match databases, and tips from caseworkers. Not every report becomes a full investigation. Agencies prioritize cases showing a pattern of fraud or significant dollar amounts.
If you filed confidentially or anonymously, you probably won’t hear the outcome. That isn’t a sign the tip was ignored. Confidentiality rules and the nature of open investigations keep agencies from sharing details with tipsters. If you learn something new later, submit it as an additional report rather than waiting for a callback.
When investigators confirm recipient fraud, the case goes to an administrative disqualification hearing or a court proceeding, where the accused person has the right to see the evidence, bring a representative, and call and cross-examine witnesses. Penalties range from a 12-month disqualification for a first intentional violation up to permanent disqualification, and serious cases can carry federal criminal charges. Retailers caught trafficking face permanent disqualification from SNAP on the first offense.
If Your Own Benefits Were Stolen
This is a separate situation from the fraud reports above. If unauthorized transactions appear on your EBT account, you’re the victim, not the subject of a tip.
Contact your state SNAP agency immediately to report the theft and request a new card. EBT cards do not carry the same consumer protections that apply to credit and debit cards under permanent federal law, so there is no standing federal requirement to replace stolen SNAP benefits. Congress temporarily authorized federally funded replacement for benefits stolen through December 20, 2024, but that authority has expired. Whether your state replaces benefits stolen after that date depends on state policy.
Report the theft quickly either way. Many states that do offer replacement set a deadline of about 30 days from when you discover the loss, and missing it can shut off any relief that might be available.