Monday morning, Julie Ebeling is fighting back tears after claiming that her EBT card was completely erased. Last week, when attempting to pay for groceries, she discovered.
“I’m in tears. There’s nothing else I can say. Like someone literally just stole all my food for the month,” Ebeling stated. “It was horrible. People behind me were like willing to pay and I was like, ‘No, you shouldn’t have to, I appreciate it,’ but I felt embarrassed.”
The woman from Sussex County, Delaware, claimed that she received a call requesting her to confirm her account details a few days prior to her scheduled $274 monthly food stamp payment. She called back, giving her account number and PIN, fearing she would lose her benefits.
“It said this was the Social Services of Delaware just calling to confirm your identity for food stamps… It sounded real as could be,” Ebeling stated. “And it wasn’t.”
The 57-year-old made a police report and headed straight to her local social services office. She claimed that New York City, a location she had not visited in around 15 years, was where her card and benefits were utilized.
Ebeling was informed that her replacement benefits would be listed on a new card that she will receive in the mail, but she is still waiting for this to happen over a week later.
“I’m without food and without my card – I feel naked,” Ebeling stated.
A department representative did, however, acknowledge the existence of the phone scam and guarantee that the organization “will never contact clients to request” EBT card numbers or pins.
The spokesman added that since Dec. 1, 2023, when DHHS began replenishing benefits, it had received 1,500 allegations of stolen benefits, of which 1,470 had been resolved. The spokesman continued, “On average, replacement benefits are received within 10 business days.” With “spikes in fraud reporting,” the duration can increase.
As of 2024, DHSS had replaced “roughly $619,000 in SNAP benefits that were stolen.”
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US Secret Service is looking into
The organization is in responsible of looking into financial crimes in general, especially EBT fraud. The Secret Service reports that throughout the past 18 to 24 months, there has been a rise in “point-of-sale” activity, or the location of retail transactions, as well as “ATM skimming-related activity.”
Even though EBT fraud frequently uses card skimming, we got in touch with Centrella once more after learning from Ebeling. He calls the phone fraud she was the victim of a phishing scam.
“The scams haven’t changed. Some of the techniques have changed. Some of the targeting victims have changed. But as financial crimes evolve, as securities on our credit cards, securities on our financial systems change, so do the criminals,” Centrella stated.
According to Centerlla, EBT cards are simple pickings because they don’t have a microchip or other extra security measures. In order to provide chip cards to people utilizing public assistance, he continued, the agency is collaborating with legislators.
