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But i don't need food. i don't want food. i'd rather have cold hard cash. what i do is simply advertise somewhere, maybe on social media, that it's for sale and for $250 ebt card, i'll take $150 cash. that's how the transaction takes place and it's widespread in underground markets throughout the united states. if you want to see a little bit how it works, go on twitter at hash tag ebt and you'll see some of these exchanges actually taking place. new creative ways to game the system are constantly popping up. >> you go to a restaurant or bar and the restaurant or bar would go to a grocery stor...

Selling car on facebook. despite case u.s. witnesses today sought oversight committee that food stamp fraud is actually decreasing. >> mr. cannon, they have dropped to an all-time low record of less than 1%; is that right? >> correct. >> but food stamp fraud has gotten more sophisticated these days involving elaborate schemes in exchange for unauthorized goods. >> recipient will go to a restaurant or a bar and the restaurant or bar would go to a grocery store and buy $200 worth of groceries and then they would for the bar or restaurant and then they would give the recipient half, 75%, you know...

Today, fraud is actually decreasing, it involves only about 1% of participants, much lower than those days where there was an actual physical food stamp, you know, the coupon instead of the debit card that is swiped nowadays. but fraud is increasing, as you said, in sophistication, often committed by grocery store owners themselves, and it cost taxpayers $330 million in 2008 alone. one witness described how food stamp trafficking commonly works. >> a recipient will go to a restaurant or bar, and this is not a place where they would accept ebt cards. um, but they would go there, and the restaur...

Participation, food stamp fraud is actually decreasing, about 1%, much lower than in the days when there were physically food stamps instead of the debit card issued now a nowadays. but the fraud is often committed by grocery store owners. it costs taxpayers $330 million since 2008 alone. one witness today described how food stamp trafficking, the most common form of fraud, is committed. >> a recipient will go to a restaurant or bar, and this is not place where they would accept the cards, but they would go there, and the restaurant or bar would go to a grocery store and buy, say, $200 worth o...

Go to a grocery store and buy $200 worth of groceries, they would give the recipient half, 75%, something off of the ebt cards. >> it tends to proliferate in mom and pop stores. even when the fraud is investigated stores are shut down they are often reopened with the same person using a fraudulent application. tougher enforcement presents its own problem. >> do you want to shut down the only source of groceries in the neighborhood, you have to be careful about that. >> larger program is the expansion of the food stamp program itself. in 1970s, one in 50 americans, today, one in 7 americans do....