Click here for updates on this story. The year-old Cleveland man has been the victim of electronic benefits theft twice in the last two months β losing his SNAP, or food-stamp, payments to criminals. He managed to get part of his stolen benefits back, thanks to a federal repayment program for victims. Then, the money vanished overnight β along with his January payment. The federal reimbursement program ended on Dec. After a dramatic week of political sparring in Washington, D.
News 5 is still getting calls from theft victims across the region, from single parents and low-wage workers to disabled and elderly adults.
The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and its county-level partners keep issuing warnings about card skimming, where criminals put covers, tiny cameras and fake pin-pads on store payment machines. Department of Agriculture.
That number is likely to climb since people whose benefits were stolen before Dec. According to state records, December was the worst month for thefts so far. Cahill and other advocates say the long-term fix is adding security features to EBT cards.
Those cards only have magnetic stripes. The USDA updated its technical standards in August, allowing states to roll out chip-and-tap technology.
