At the dinner table, the most disadvantaged families in the United States are being targeted by a wave of digital theft, which is causing the most pain.
The mother of three children and a recipient of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Harris County, Texas, Yolanda Berryhill, expressed her regret by saying, “I wish this wouldn’t have happened to me.” It is more than anything else that I feel like a failure as a mother since I am unable to provide assistance to my children at this time.
Following her survival of a heist in 1998, during which she was shot four times and sustained three aneurysms, Berryhill has been living with a disability ever since. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the lifeline of her family, but earlier this month, when she went to buy food, that lifeline was abruptly cut off.
She claimed that the cashier “said something to the effect of, ‘It’s not going through.'”
According to the information provided by Berryhill to the sheriff’s office, seven hundred thirty dollars disappeared from her account within a few hours of her monthly deposit and was spent at a Walmart located in Germantown, Maryland.
Parents who are “trying to feed their kids” are having their benefits taken away from them.
Benefits are being stolen from parents ‘trying to feed their kids’
According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), fraudulent SNAP transactions surged by a staggering 55% between the final quarter of fiscal year 2024 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. The number of households that were affected in the first quarter of FY2025 was 221,191, which is an increase from the 143,903 homes that were affected in the fourth quarter of FY2024.
Even worse is the fact that victims are no longer assured of receiving assistance. At the end of the year 2024, Congress allowed the program that was supposed to replace benefits with federal funding to expire, leaving millions of people without a safety net.
From the second quarter of FY2023 to the first quarter of FY2025, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website states that it replaced $322.5 million worth of stolen benefits.
In May, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) stated that “theft of funds on SNAP EBT cards has rapidly increased in recent years.” In such instances, thieves steal monies placed onto EBT cards that SNAP users rely on to purchase food. They do this by covertly installing card skimmers and cloning point of sale terminals, which gives them the ability to steal benefits that are financed by the government. Investigations that have been conducted recently have revealed that foreign criminal organizations are significantly involved in and benefiting from SNAP fraud.
According to Justin King, the policy director at Propel, “Our estimate is that something above $400 million is stolen every year from the pockets of low-income households — those households consisting of mothers and fathers who are attempting to provide food for their children.” The SNAP customers can use the free software known as Propel to monitor their accounts and identify fraudulent activity. When individuals are exploited in this manner, we observe effects that are quite detrimental. People further accumulate debt, and they fall further and further behind on other expenses.
Changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) have been made as part of President Trump’s “big beautiful” bill, which, according to the Urban Institute, will “widen the persistent gap between benefits and food costs.”
Berryhill continues by saying, “Prices are simply going up, but the benefits of the SNAP program are decreasing.” She is responsible for determining how she will provide food for her family for the remainder of the month.
How to protect your SNAP benefits:
As the number of fraudulent SNAP transactions continues to rise, digital thieves are making money off of family members who are going hungry. For this reason, how can you safeguard your benefits in a system that was not designed to accommodate the new fraud game?
To begin, here:
Make sure your PIN is secure. Make sure that your personal identification number (PIN) is robust and difficult to guess, and that it does not contain any repetitive digits, such as your birthday or address. Every month, preferably shortly before your benefits are loaded, you should be sure to update it.
Keep an eye on, stop, and repeat: It’s not just a piece of plastic; your EBT card is actually your income. When you are not using your card, make sure you lock it. By way of illustration, the Texas Benefits app gives you the ability to put your EBT card on hold with the state.
Maintain a regular check on your balance. Alerts are sent to you by the Propel app whenever there is questionable activity.
Take care to avoid card skimmers. Self-checkout machines and store card readers are being targeted by fraudsters who are installing skimming devices, which are little readers that take your card information.
When you are at the checkout counter, be on the lookout for suspicious card readers. Acquire the knowledge necessary to identify card skimmers by examining the card reader for indications (such as bulging, off-center, or loose pieces) and by examining the security seal.
Put a stop to use from other states. It is now possible to prohibit the use of your SNAP card in other states in a number of states, which stops con artists from stealing your money from a distance of one thousand miles. It is also possible to do this with the Propel app.
You should get in touch with your state office to cancel your card and report it to the authorities if you have any reason to believe that your card has been compromised or that your benefits have been taken.
One thing is abundantly evident when the incidence of SNAP fraud reaches crisis proportions: your EBT card is not merely a benefit; rather, it is a target for criminals. At this point, the damage has already been done to families like the Berryhills.
