GEORGIA, — More than $3 million in SNAP benefits Georgians rely on to buy food has been stolen in the last year, state officials confirmed to 11Alive.
Card skimming and card cloning are the primary drivers of such losses, according to the Georgia Department of Human Services which administers the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Thieves steal the funds by placing an illegal device on an ATM or retailer's card-swiping machine to copy EBT card information. The criminals can then use the information to make fake EBT cards and purchase food items from SNAP-authorized stores.
"Lets talk more about how all $960 of my stamps were just stolen this morning all the way in the New York!," one resident wrote on Georgia DHS' Facebook page. "There’s gotta be a class action lawsuit for the pain and suffering us families are now facing due to the lack of security of a GOVERNMENT FUNDED program! The embarrassment of being in the store and your card declines when you KNOW you should have stamps."
Concerns over stolen benefits have been a growing concern across the country. The state created a plan for families to seek reimbursement for fraud and stolen funds last year after Congress passed a law in December 2022 to protect and replace SNAP benefits stolen via card skimming, card cloning, and other similar methods. The law requires states to replace such benefits that were stolen between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2024. The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 revised the end date of the benefit theft period from Sept. 30, 2024, to Dec. 20, 2024.
The Georgia Department of Human Services confirmed that in the last year alone, approximately 8,300 families depending on SNAP have submitted reimbursement claims due to card skimming or cloning. A DHS spokesperson shared that 82.06% of those claims have been approved to date.
“We have worked with our EBT card vendor to finalize, test, and deploy to production several fraud mitigation changes to increase card security, including a change to prevent clients from setting easy PINs like 1111 or 1234,” Ellen Brown with DHS shared in a statement. “We are also testing the deployment of an app that would allow clients to lock and unlock their cards.”
According to the USDA, some states, including California and Oklahoma, are working to migrate their SNAP EBT cards from magnetic stripes to chip cards, a way to further strengthen security and protect funds. When finally rolled out, California would become the first state to equip EBT cards with a commonplace level of fraud protection available to debit and credit card users since 2015. The state budgeted $50 million for the EBT system upgrades last year.
Yet, Brown tells 11Alive card chipping is not yet feasible for Georgia EBT users, as most vendors’ EBT point-of-sale systems do not support chipped cards.
In the interim, Georgians who believe their SNAP benefits were stolen from their cards and seek replacement benefits via the state’s online portal.
DHS also urges customers to protect their benefits by following these tips:
- NEVER share sensitive information with an unsolicited requestor.
- Be wary of publicly posting information such as birthdays, children or pet names, workplaces, where you grew up, and other personal historical information on social media. Doing so can let scammers successfully answer challenge questions and reset passwords on your accounts without needing to interact with you at all.
- DHS customers should maintain strong, unique passwords for their Georgia Gateway accounts and never share personal account information with anyone who is not a designated caregiver.
- Save DHS’ primary phone number 877-423-4746 in your phone contacts, that way, when you need to reach us, you’ll have the correct phone number immediately available to you.
- If you suspect that a call you receive is a scam, hang up and call DHS directly using the phone number you saved in your contacts.
- If you suspect that an email, text message, website, or social media page/account is a scam, don’t open any links or attachments that you see. Instead, call DHS directly OR go to our website – dhs.georgia.gov.
- Be advised that DHS may serve you via social media, but over the phone we will ask for your Social Security number and banking information for verification and when submitting a new application.
- Georgians who think they’ve been the victim of a phishing scam involving their public benefits should contact the DHS Office of Inspector General at inspectorgeneralhotline@dhs.ga.gov or 877-423-4746, option 4.
11Alive has a running list of resources for families experiencing SNAP disruptions. Viewers who want to speak with a reporter about the delays can email the newsroom.
