An estimated 8,800 New Yorkers who receive SNAP payments since January 2022 have been the victims of skimming, a type of electronic theft.
In an effort to better protect New Yorkers whose benefits are stolen, the Legal Aid Society and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP filed a lawsuit in late February to amend federal standards.
How To Recover Stolen SNAP Payments?
Participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from all 53 states and territories will soon be entitled to get their reimbursements for benefits theft after reports of stolen food benefits totaling millions of dollars in various states over the past year.
According to a US Department of Agriculture spokesperson who spoke to MarketWatch, all 53 state SNAP agencies submitted state plans for the reimbursement of benefits that had been stolen to the Food and Nutrition Services before February 27, the deadline the USDA gave each state to be considered eligible to refund consumers whose benefits had been stolen.
President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, generally referred to as the omnibus spending measure, into law in December. It enables each state to use federal funds to compensate SNAP participants who lost benefits due to theft. But, in order to be eligible, states had to submit their strategies for how that money would be reimbursed by February 27.
Each state will have a different schedule for when the reimbursement schemes will go into effect and when program members will start receiving payments. State implementation plans will be reviewed and approved by FNS, and they will be in place up until FNS releases its regulations, a USDA representative told MarketWatch in an email.
As stated by the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, there have been more than 10,000 documented cases of skimming in New York state since January 2022, resulting in around $4 million in benefits taken.
Prior to the introduction of SNAP Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, replacement coupons would be sent to recipients whose physical food stamp coupons had been lost or stolen in the mail.
The cards, however, could not be replaced if they were stolen after being received. According to the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, EBT benefits must be administered in a manner consistent with the old food stamp coupons.
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EBT Card Scam
According to the complaint, an offender will place a Bluetooth device that appears deceptively like a debit card reader on an ATM or point-of-sale device in order to steal a consumer’s information.
After a card is swiped, the perpetrator will be able to obtain the victim’s credit or debit card number, account information, and personal identification number via Bluetooth technology.
This method, can copy an individual’s SNAP EBT card and promptly remove funds from a government-controlled account. Typically, according to the lawsuit, victims are unaware of the theft until they check their EBT balance or conduct their next transaction.
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