Investigative reporter Kyla Boshi's
first story on EBT fraud a few weeks
ago had many of you frustrated by the
way ebt's a fancy term for food stamps.
Low income families are getting ripped off,
and nobody seemed to be protecting them.
Even though a fix for the
problem seems fairly simple,
the state just needs to make those
EBT cards with chips and instead
of just the magnetic stripes.
Well, loyal story viewer Veronica
wrote in to us at the time. She said.
I'm shocked that someone would have
the audacity to steal snap benefits.
From the ones who need it the most,
especially those with children.
I think that since EBT benefits
being stolen is on the rise,
the state of Oregon needs to wake
the hell up and get the chip cards to
protect people's money and benefits.
Well, since that first story, thank you.
By the way, Veronica,
since that first story,
Kyle has stayed on top of this
issue and he's learned the problem
might even be bigger than imagine.
And it still requires an urgent response.
Life is a juggling act for Lisa Jones.
She's a single mother with three young.
Kids who works 2 part-time
jobs and takes classes at PCC?
Yeah, I work my **** off every day
like there's never a dull moment.
Well, a few weeks ago,
Lisa's world got even more
complicated when the Portland woman
tried to buy some groceries and
her Oregon Trail card was rejected.
When she logged into her account,
Lisa found the bulk of her
monthly food stamps,
or snap benefits was gone.
It was just. Just nauseous, you know?
Just like, really sick to my stomach.
A closer look revealed someone
had used Lisa's account at a
Walmart store in Wiggins, Ms.
at 7:08 AM on January 19th.
Someone made a $498 purchase
using her stolen snap benefits.
When she reported the theft,
Oregon DHS, a worker told her
there was nothing they could do.
Right now, the state doesn't
refund stolen snap benefits.
Be on those food benefits
to to eat. You know, like that's
that's a huge impact on our family.
My money was gone and I didn't
understand what was going on
since our initial report on E BT fraud.
I'm like, this can't be.
I know there is money in there because
we've heard from numerous people in Oregon
who've had their snap benefits wiped out.
Oregon DHS estimates last year there were at
least 55 complaints about EBT card skimming,
but suspects the actual number of occurrences
of this type of fraud is likely higher,
and a security expert warns
it's going to get a lot worse.
It is about to take off like a rocket ship,
Haywood Telcove of LexisNexis
Risk Solutions government group,
figures food stamp fraud in Oregon
could result in huge losses, he warns.
Nationally, reports of scammers ripping
off SNAP benefits is through the roof,
and the security expert points to recent
chatter on the dark web like this clip,
which purportedly shows criminals
bragging in a how to video.
Crooks often skim EBT cards and
pin numbers by secretly installing
a device on ATM readers,
then create fake cards and drain accounts.
What the fraudsters have figured out,
what the criminals have figured out,
is that they don't get caught and
government never runs out of money.
They just print more,
the security expert warns.
E BT fraud has many of the same
characteristics as unemployment fraud,
which cost the government billions
of dollars in losses during the
pandemic criminals took advantage of.
Old, outdated systems, the same players,
same organized criminal groups are
now attacking the food stamp program.
Congress is reacting to the problem.
In December,
lawmakers approved a spending bill
that allows SNAP recipients to be
reimbursed for stolen benefits.
Problem is, Oregon, like most states,
hasn't implemented the changes yet.
And frankly,
it doesn't fix the problem.
That's great. After the fact,
that's a great afterthought.
You're going to now put all
this money back on my card.
But in the moment,
where am I going to get that 500 from?
It's I guess it's going to,
I don't know, is it going to come
out of my GI Bill for the month?
Is it going to come out of gas for my car?
Medications for my children or myself.
Congress also told the USDA
to provide guidance to states
on adding fraud protection.
Currently, EBT recipients don't
have the same security technology as
everybody else using the banking system.
Though suspicious,
out-of-state purchases seemed to
go unnoticed and EBD cards don't
have a chip to avoid skimming.
They just have the old magnetic
stripe making them ripe for fraud.
This is 1,000,000
and millions and millions of dollars
nationwide of our taxpayers money.
That is getting taken,
and you can't pay for a little.
Chip card advocates applaud Congress.
And look, the changes are good,
but they've got to happen quickly. Low
income families are literally being
robbed of their food money as we speak.
States should be moving on this now, today,
like last year, like I just it could.
That cannot be stated strongly enough.
Victoria is with the Massachusetts
Law Reform Institute.
The nonprofit filed a class action.
Lawsuit in that state on behalf of EBT
recipients who had benefits stolen.
Because for most victims like Lisa,
there is no recourse.
The food stamp benefits are gone,
they could be stolen again,
and families need to eat.
Losing sleep over it,
it's making me nauseous.
I'm not even like, focus on my stuff.
I'm a student in the part time student,
I work part time and I'm a mom of three,
you know, and it's just kept
me really distracted and keeps
me up at night worried sick.
Kyle joins me now.
So frustrating to hear about this.
How does that first woman,
how she put food
on her table? Yeah.
And we talk about real world consequences.
This is an example of it.
I mean, she explained how it may mean
the difference between putting gas in
the car or getting meds for the kids.
They don't have the money because
of the fact that fraudsters have
wiped out the snap benefits
and they obviously needed they qualify
it or they wouldn't be getting it.
What's, what's DHS going to do about
this and more importantly, when?
Yeah, that is a good question.
And it certainly appears that
Oregon DHS is basically waiting
for the feds or USDA for guidance.
In fact, I got an e-mail today
from a spokesperson from DHS who
said we are committed to doing
everything we can to protect people
with EBT cards from fraud and are
researching and analyzing this issue.
Including consulting with our
partners at the USDA to urgently
identify new strategies we can use
to protect EBT card holders in
Oregon from card skimming fraud.
But as we pointed out in this story,
I mean that needs to happen yesterday.
Absolutely. That's exactly
the word I was going to say.
Come on, quit studying.
Let's go. How widespread is this?
Yeah, so it's interesting.
You know, we've just been hearing about
this in the past few months, other states,
this has been going on for about six
months and the numbers elsewhere,
it's truly staggering.
Oregon, DHS, listen.
You don't actually track this type
of EBT skimming fraud they're going
to now after some of our reporting.
The thing that really concerns me here, Pat,
is the number of people that are vulnerable.
So Oregon, roughly 700,000 people
rely on food stamp or snap benefits.
That's one in six Oregonians.
And you think about that,
if the fraudsters continue to
do this at a greater rate,
there could be a lot of people that
may not have food on the table.
And you also think as taxpayers,
if this money isn't going to
those who truly need it.
It's going elsewhere.
That's not a good use of our money.
Absolutely. Yeah. Well, thanks
for bringing this to us, Kyle,
and I'm sure you'll stay on top of it.