HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Investigators are looking into a SNAP trafficking scam in Harrisburg.
SNAP stands for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and is the new name for the Food Stamp Program.
The scam affects not only the people charged with trafficking, but you as a taxpayer as well.
Pennsylvania Inspector General Bruce Beemer said, "Using those types of benefits and sort of scamming those benefits and the government out of that, using the money for purposes it was not intended for."
The welfare fraud scam lead investigators from Kennedy Fried Chicken to two other corner stores on Derry Street in the city.
Ten people were charged for trafficking and fraudulently buying and exchanging SNAP benefits.
Taxpayers also pay the price because they pay for those SNAP benefits.
"When that money is actually used for other purposes, sometimes unlawful, that's taking oftentimes food really out of peoples' hands. Sometimes children," Beemer said.
Beemer said food stamp recipients who sell their SNAP benefits also end up getting less out of the deal.
"If the value of the card would be $100. Oftentimes they'd sell it to the business for something under that value and obtain $50 or $75 in cash, and then in some cases purchasing illegal contraband with that money."
Beemer said it's important to work with local law enforcement and other federal agencies to keep cracking down on these crimes.
"We're lending our expertise and handling the food stamp trafficking aspect of these investigations because it's coming up. We're seeing it more and more," Beemer said.