In the U.S., fraud is getting worse everywhere, but the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has been the target of the most recent scams. Some of the most defenseless people in the country get benefits from it, and unfortunately, they are falling for these scams and losing hundreds of dollars in benefits.
There have been reports of SNAP benefit scams all over the country. In Ohio, one receiver, Jason Nichols, found that someone had copied and used his electronic benefit card (EBT) in other states. Nichols told WHIOTV that some people stole $291 from him in food stamps and spent it in shops in Illinois.
To make things easier for people who get SNAP benefits, the money is sent to them through an EBT card, which works like a bank card or credit card. Because of this, EBT cards can be used for scams like cloning, phishing, and skimming.
These cards are loaded with money every month that can be used at participating shops across the country. This means that thieves can use them over and over again without their owners noticing.
Ohio officials have recently warned people who get SNAP about the sharp rise in scams.In a statement in March, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services brought this problem to light: Skimming is a method that thieves are using more and more to get account numbers.
Putting something over a point-of-sale card reader to copy payment card information is how this is done. Based on a study from FICO, the number of cases of card skimming increased by 368 percent between 2021 and 2022.
But Ohio isn’t the only place with this problem. According to the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there were about 177,000 cases of theft in different states in the first three months of 2024.
It turned out that New York was the state most affected by benefit fraud, with 34,306 cases recorded during this time. A lot of EBT scams have also happened in other places, like Illinois, Maryland, and Texas.
The thieves are sometimes caught and charged by the police, which is good news. In a big case earlier this year, two people were charged with using a New York bodega as a hub for EBT theft worth more than $20 million. Besides that, six people were caught in Texas in March 2024 for stealing tens of thousands of dollars in food stamps.
Authorities haven’t stopped at prosecution either. Because this is such a widespread problem, several bills have been suggested in New York to stop SNAP fraud. SNAP fraud should be made a class D crime, and the state should do a study to find out how common food stamp theft is.
Iwen Chu, a representative from Brooklyn, said that SNAP benefit fraud was “a critical issue” that had “victimized countless individuals and families” and “drained substantial state resources.”
Chu went on to talk about why the planned study on SNAP fraud was important.”This is why the study on SNAP fraud is so important: it will help us find the causes, figure out the most common tricks scammers use, and come up with good ways to stop them.”
The government needs to find out right away how these funds are being stolen. This is the most important first step to protect low-income New Yorkers who depend on this help to pay for food and other needs.
Measures you can take to prevent SNAP fraud
Here are some tips from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for SNAP users who want to avoid fraud:
– Make a PIN for your EBT card that is unique and hard to guess.
– You should change your PIN every month, before each payment.
– Don’t let anyone else see your PIN or card number.The Job and Family Services Department of Ohio will never ask for these ranges.
– Check point-of-sale card readers carefully for skimming devices before you use them.
– When you enter your PIN, put your hand or body over the screen so no one else can see it.