SentiLink Receives USDA Authorization for SNAP Identity Fraud Prevention

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted SentiLink an Authority to Operate for technology supporting identity fraud detection in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, giving the company an authorized deployment path for the federal benefits program.

The approval permits USDA to use SentiLink’s technology within an approved system boundary for SNAP program integrity. SNAP provides food assistance to eligible households, and the proposed use focuses on identifying suspicious identity patterns in applications and helping legitimate applicants access benefits through secure digital services.

SentiLink combines machine learning with a dedicated Fraud Intelligence Team that studies emerging fraud methods and incorporates its findings into the company’s models. Its identity-resolution tools target synthetic identities, identity theft and other forms of first-party fraud, in which an applicant misrepresents information about themselves.

The company says it verifies more than 3 million identities daily and flags over 150,000 high-risk applications across its customer base. Its customers include 13 of the 15 largest U.S. banks, eight of the ten largest U.S. credit unions and three of the five largest U.S. telecommunications providers. Those figures describe SentiLink’s broader business, rather than activity under the new SNAP authorization.

The USDA approval follows SentiLink’s FedRAMP Ready designation in May 2025. FedRAMP is the federal government’s cloud security assessment program; Ready status and an agency Authority to Operate are distinct stages in the company’s work to meet government security and operational requirements.

Kathleen Waid, SentiLink’s chief revenue officer, said the company aims to apply identity intelligence used by financial institutions to benefit-program integrity. The authorized SNAP use case extends its work into a public-benefits setting where agencies must distinguish eligible applicants from people using stolen or fabricated identities.

SentiLink has also participated in the debate over AI-enabled fraud against federal benefit programs. In congressional testimony, researcher David Maimon described fraud activity moving beyond pandemic assistance into programs including SNAP, Medicare and Medicaid.

Other benefits agencies are adopting separate identity controls. Alabama recently made Login.gov the primary identity check for initial unemployment claims, with photo identification and a selfie requested in some verification flows and an alternative available through participating post offices.

Sources: PR Newswire

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team