Woman Who Went Viral for Lying to Get Food Stamps Says She Owes $35,000

A Louisiana woman who posted multiple videos on TikTok bragging about lying to get $35,000 in SNAP benefits was arrested for fraud charges.

Newsweek reached out to the woman, Koya Unek, as well as the USDA Food and Nutrition Service and the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services for comment.

Why It Matters

Low- and no-income households nationally are supported by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as “food stamps,” which provided assistance to an average of 42.1 million people per month in 2023, or about 12.6 percent of all Americans.

For fiscal year 2025, SNAP recipients are expected to receive an average of $187 per month per person, or roughly $6.16 per day.

What To Know

Koya Unek, who goes by @theyknokoya on TikTok, posted a video on the social media platform on May 1 that essentially instructs viewers how to lie to the government to receive free food assistance.

She said she lives alone, is single, and has no children. She started applying for SNAP benefits two or three years ago.

“People be like, ‘Girl, how do you get food stamps? I wish I could get food stamps,'” Unek posted to her nearly 93,000 followers. “B****, you better start lying.”

The video received nearly 48,000 likes.

Unek said she lied to a woman on the phone about her personal and financial situation, saying that she was homeless for “three, four, five months” and has no family, and is “starving.”

food stamps — “SNAP welcomed here” sign is seen at the entrance to a Big Lots store in Portland, Oregon.

Getty Images

She portrayed how she acted on the phone with the woman who helped, pretending to cry and explain her perceived situation. She admitted that she lied about submitting job applications and not getting call-backs.

It led to her receiving a card with $1,000 with additional $300 monthly payments.

“B****, you don’t gotta tell everybody the motherf******* truth,” she said in the video.

However, last week, she posted multiple videos explaining that she had been caught and that authorities likely found out due to her initial video from last month.

She said she received a call from authorities stating that the assistance was being discontinued. It was followed by police showing up at her door and taking her to jail for fraud charges.

“They turned my food stamps off and now I gotta pay back $35,000…I don’t know where the hell I’m gonna get $35,000 from, but I gotta pay ’em back,” she said. “Everyone, watch what y’all put on the internet because everything is not for the internet—and I learned that.”

She said that viewers commenting on her videos asked why she applied for SNAP benefits in the first place.

“If it’s free, I want it,” she said. “Food is way expensive. Who wants to keep spending money on food? It’s too much.”

What People Are Saying

Gina Plata-Nino, deputy director at the Food Research & Action Center, told the Associated Press: “Incentive-based approaches—not punitive restrictions—are the most effective, dignified path to improving nutrition and reducing hunger.”

Kavelle Christie, a health policy and advocacy expert, previously told Newsweek: “SNAP has long been a political target, often viewed as a means to impose moral judgments on low-income families rather than recognized as the essential safety net it truly is.”