After reports of stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and cash assistance increased due to Electronic Benefits Transfer skimming, Council Member Sandra Ung is urging recipients in Queens to remain vigilant of illegal devices on point-of-sale terminals to capture card information.
The reports come a year after House Republicans, who had a majority in the House of Representatives at the time, allowed for the expiration of a temporary federal reimbursement program that allowed victims of EBT skimming to recover stolen benefits, despite the Democratic caucus advocating for and attempting to extend it in the 2024 stopgap spending bill.
While funding for benefit replacements were included in the December 2024 draft of the bill, it was subsequently removed from the final version.
Ung emphasized that without that safety net, families who rely on SNAP are left with no way to replace their stolen funds.
“Families who rely on SNAP and cash assistance are already struggling, and when their benefits are stolen, they suffer twice,” Ung said. “First, they lose the assistance they depend on to buy food or pay for basic needs, and then they are forced to choose between hunger and hardship.”
What is EBT skimming and who does it impact?
EBT skimming occurs when criminals place illegal devices on point-of-sale terminals to capture card information. Once obtained, criminals use that information to steal an individual or family’s monthly benefits, often before victims even know their account has been compromised.
The theft of SNAP benefits has been particularly harmful in older adult and immigrant communities, according to reports by local senior centers and nonprofit organizations. They claim there has been a dramatic increase in the number of people reporting theft, many of whom reached out to the offices of local elected officials to share the devastating impacts the loss of food benefits has had on the families they serve.
“The rise in EBT skimming scams has had a devastating impact on older adults and families with low incomes who rely on these benefits to put food on the table,” said Katie Foley, managing director of Selfhelp Community Services. “At Selfhelp Community Services, we’ve seen firsthand how these crimes leave the people we serve struggling to meet their basic needs, with little recourse for recovery.”
However, SNAP benefit skimming is not exclusive to New York City — it has become a nationwide crisis. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over 125,000 households nationwide lost more than $60 million in benefits due to these fraudulent practices in 2023 alone.
A recent NYC Department of Investigations report states that the NYC Department of Social Services processed over 142,000 SNAP reimbursement applications for EBT theft victims, reimbursing more than $43.7 million in stolen benefits between August 2023 and March 2025.
How can SNAP recipients protect their benefits?
According to a news release from Ung’s office, the most effective way to protect EBT benefits right now is by creating an online EBT Edge account, which allows cardholders to freeze and unfreeze their EBT cards between purchases and disable out-of-state transactions, making it significantly more difficult for criminals to use stolen information.
In the long-term, State Sen. John Liu said the most straightforward way to stop EBT skimming is to upgrade New York’s magnetic-strip EBT cards with encrypted magnetic chips. He noted that the anti-theft technology is already used in credit and debit cards nationwide. “There is no reason EBT cards should not have the same protection,” Liu said.
Until EBT cards are chip-enabled, however, DOI Commissioner Jocelyn E. Strauber said public awareness is key for SNAP recipients to protect their benefits, which she expressed during a workshop for older adults in November at Latimer Gardens Older Adult Center, in Flushing, in collaboration with Selfhelp.
“This team effort to educate the public, in particular older adults, is an important initiative to empower benefit recipients to identify and avoid this type of fraud, which already has resulted in the theft of millions of dollars of critical public assistance,” Strauber said.
Ung also shared a few tips with older adults to help prevent EBT theft, including the following:
- Checking for loose or bulky card readers
- Inspecting PIN pads for overlays or mismatched coloring
- Shielding PIN entry
- Avoiding unfamiliar ATMs or terminals when possible
What legislative actions are being taken?
Congresswoman Grace Meng introduced the Fairness for Victims of SNAP Skimming Act of 2025 (H.R.3117) in April of last year, which would federally require SNAP to replace the full amount of a household’s stolen benefits — specifically through card skimming, card cloning or similar fraudulent methods — using funds provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Few things are more despicable than taking food out of the mouths of hard-working families,” Meng said. “But over the past few years, that is what criminals have been doing here in Queens and across the nation. I will work nonstop in a bipartisan manner to get it enacted into law.”
The bill, co-sponsored by 11 other U.S. representatives, including Congressman Tom Suozzi, has been referred to the House Committee on Agriculture, but has yet to move any further in the legislative process.
Another bill (S1465/A699) was introduced in the state senate and assembly for the 2025-26 legislative session requiring the implementation of an electronic benefit transfer system using industry-standard commercial electronic funds transfer technology in order to prevent fraud.
Both the senate version of the bill — co-sponsored by four state senators, including Liu — and the assembly version of the bill — co-sponsored by four assembly members, including Assemblywoman Nily Rozic and Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was an assemblyman at the time — are currently in their respective committees.
“As thousands of New Yorkers continue to fall victim to skimming scams, we are pushing for state legislation to mandate this upgrade and will keep fighting to ensure families who rely on SNAP benefits are no longer vulnerable to theft,” Liu said.
Help for SNAP recipients is available
Ung’s office has been helping constituents whose SNAP benefits were stolen through EBT skimming. In many cases, Ung said, her team was able to get those funds reimbursed.
However, she said that with the expiration of the federal program that provided reimbursements, it is more important than ever to learn how to prevent theft from happening in the first place.
“These crimes are not only upsetting — they are devastating for older adults who depend on these funds to buy groceries and meet basic needs,” she said. “By staying informed and vigilant, we can make sure fewer people fall victim to this crime.”
Cardholders who need assistance setting up an EBT Edge account or learning how to freeze their cards are encouraged to contact Ung’s office by calling (718) 888-8747 or emailing District20@Council.NYC.gov.
“We cannot leave vulnerable families behind,” Ung stressed. “Until we restore protections at the federal level, education and vigilance are our strongest tools.”
