A 20-year-old mother in Indiana lost her $486 monthly SNAP benefits in September when her account was drained within minutes of funds being deposited. Her physical food assistance card remained in her wallet during the unauthorized charges, which occurred across multiple retailers in the Northeast. This case reflects a broader pattern affecting the nation’s poorest Americans through skimming schemes, where criminals extract card information from payment terminals to clone cards and drain accounts.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, approximately $233 million in food assistance may have been lost over the past two years primarily due to skimming. Criminal organizations, including transnational rings, have specifically targeted SNAP recipients by timing thefts to align with monthly benefit deposits. The vulnerability stems partly from outdated technology, as SNAP has lagged behind mainstream banking in upgrading to microchip-enabled cards that prevent information copying. While most U.S. banks upgraded their debit and credit cards with such security features over two decades ago, food assistance cards continue to rely on magnetic stripe technology that cybersecurity experts say is easier to compromise.
Most states do not replace stolen SNAP benefits, leaving recipients without recourse. This contrasts sharply with federal protections for credit and debit card holders under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act. Congress excluded SNAP recipients from similar protections in 1996 due to cost concerns, according to a Government Accountability Office report. The federal government did temporarily replace over $320 million in stolen benefits for approximately 670,000 households between October 2022 and December 2024, providing a glimpse into the scale of the problem.
Efforts to combat skimming now face new challenges following federal funding cuts that began earlier this month, according to GAO officials. These reductions are expected to increase budgetary pressure on states and hinder their ability to allocate resources toward benefit card theft prevention. The USDA has stated there was significant inaction against skimming before the funding changes were proposed, pointing to states’ inadequate response to years of ongoing theft from vulnerable populations.
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