Michigan Capitol Confidential won the 2026 Marketing Campaign of the Year award from the State Policy Network this August for our 30-story series exposing fraud in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
SNAP helps poor Michiganders buy groceries at 10,000 retailers statewide, but thieves across the United States and even overseas steal benefits through card skimmers installed in gas stations, grocery stores, liquor stores and other public places. Those devices copy SNAP card data that the criminals sell online, leaving Michigan families hungry.
We found a 400% increase in skimmer fraud from 2023-24. Criminals stole benefits so frequently that Michigan mailed an average of 738 replacement Bridge cards every day in 2024.
CapCon was the only outlet in Michigan digging into SNAP fraud, and our stories influenced Michigan lawmakers to spend $17 million to upgrade SNAP cards for 1.3 million people.
We filed hundreds of public records requests, seeking information from federal, state, and local officials as we tried to discover the severity of the problem. We staked out discount retailers like Sam’s Club and Costco for hours, looking for people pushing carts piled high with energy drinks, diapers, and baby formula — highly resalable items. We read over 500 pages of police reports detailing SNAP fraud in Oakland County, and fought Wayne County, which claims that it doesn’t have a single document about SNAP fraud, even though it is the state’s most populated county.
The State Policy Network award recognizes campaigns that achieve real-world results, and our work paid off.
In 2025, the state reported $7.7 million in SNAP fraud, down from $14 million in 2024. Michigan has mailed upgraded cards to most people in the program, which should reduce fraud even more.
In some cases, we found that Michigan paid SNAP benefits to people who weren’t eligible. Michigan has paid more than $4 million in SNAP benefits since 2024 to people with out-of-state addresses.
Michigan is now the first state in the Midwest to upgrade its SNAP cards. Ohio and New York are copying Michigan’s playbook to upgrade cards, further showing CapCon’s worth.
