600% jump in SNAP scams in 3 months: Is DSS doing enough to protect EBT card holders?

(WSPA) – $190 million in stolen SNAP benefits were reported to the federal government for just the last fiscal year (October 1, 2023-September 30, 2024). In just the last quarter, SNAP scams jumped by 600% in South Carolina alone.

However, after December 20, 2024, the federal government stopped reimbursing EBT cardholders because of a change in the law.  

7NEWS Here to Help took that concern to the state agency overseeing the program, the SC Department of Social Services, to ask what is being done to better protect families who need that money for food.

Personal loss

When Tammy Mauldin, in Spartanburg, took custody of her great-granddaughter, Scarlett, she never imagined one day they wouldn’t have enough food.  

“I’m gonna cry, because I had to watch a baby ask me for things day after day, for months that I could not give her,” Mauldin said.

Her EBT card with $1,500 in SNAP benefits had been drained by hackers as she tried to buy groceries online.

When she reported the scam to the South Carolina Department of Social Services, Mauldin was shocked to find out where the money had been spent.

“He went through it, and he said, Well, it is showing that your EBT was spent in NY because it shows them in the computer, and it was also spent in Philadelphia and somewhere in Pennsylvania,” Mauldin said.

How to lock your card

Sean Fay, the Inspector General for DSS, confirmed more than 99% of stolen SNAP funds are used in far-off states.   7NEWS asked him what was being done to try to curb these scams.

“The biggest thing is we’ve added or included that feature to allow them to turn off their card or lock it and to not allow purchases out of state,” he said.

Fay is referring to the ConnectEBT app, which allows users to:

• Lock and unlock their cards
• Block online purchases
• Stop out-of-state transactions

Pilot program: Block out-of-state transactions

We asked Fay why SC couldn’t automatically stop SNAP funds intended for SC recipients from being used out of state.

“Right now, there is a federal law that says there has to be an inoperability between states so it cannot be turned on by default.  There is a pilot program that SC has signed up for with the USDA…and the intent with that is that it’s not going to work in places you probably wouldn’t be,” Fay said, giving examples like Texas, NY and California. Still, there’s no clear start date for that pilot program.  

Could DSS educate better?

While states like Ohio and Maryland have clear online descriptions of the ConnectEBT safety features, neither the South Carolina brochure sent to all SNAP recipients nor the ConnectEBT home page has any mention of how the app can lock the card and/or curb out-of-state purchases.  

To find that, you would need to look under the Stolen Benefit Replacement section of the DSS website and scroll down or follow the DSS Facebook page. However, even then, many SC SNAP recipients find the fine print details easy to miss.

Destiny Hughes, from Clinton, said she didn’t know you could lock the card, even though that feature has been available for one year. She said that could have prevented $659 of her EBT money from being stolen 2 hours after she swiped her card at an Upstate convenience store. It was likely a skimming scam, with her funds ending up 600 miles away.

“Somewhere in Pennsylvania at Food Lion,” said Hughes.  

What about chip technology?

Hughes believes her theft could have been prevented with chip technology, already being implemented in states like California and Oklahoma. So 7NEWS asked Fay about adding that safety feature.  

“I think at some point we probably will have chip cards, probably sooner than later,” Fay said.  Though he added, it’s not a simple addition since not only does the state need to pay for new, more expensive cards, but thousands of merchants could also need to upgrade their chip readers to accept the cards.

And it’s not just chip technology that could help. 

7NEWS reached out to the company that provides the EBT cards to SC, Conduent. In a statement, the company said, “Conduent already has work underway, in support of state clients, to move SNAP benefits to chip cards and mobile wallets, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, enabled with EMV technology. Transitioning to EMV is a proven fraud prevention strategy. Chip cards and mobile pay systems are already accepted across the country, and EBT payments should be afforded the same technological safeguards. Conduent has a dedicated team of specialists ready to partner with our state clients to make this transition as quickly as possible.”

How do scammers use funds?

As for what scammers are doing with the funds, reports show they use them to buy goods that are easily resold, and there have also been instances where fraudsters were able to set up business accounts to deposit the funds and steal the cash.

It is clear more needs to be done throughout the nation after the USDA reported a huge surge in SNAP scams towards the end of last year as the federal government was ending its policy to reimburse lost funds. 

600% jump in EBT scams in SC in 3 months

Let’s take a look at the numbers for just SC alone.   For the fiscal year ending in September of 2024 (Oct. 2023-Sep. 2024), 1,711 people reported stolen funds. But from just October to December of last year (Oct. 2024-Dec. 2024), that number jumped to 11,892.  Investigators believe many of those thefts were part of an organized crime ring.

A recent nationwide survey by Propel suggested that true theft is much higher. 39% of victims said they never reported their loss.

Propel also offers an app that, like ConnectEBT, allows cardholders to monitor transactions and lock down funds. While it’s not state-authorized, 1 in 4 cardholders use it for those tools and coupons. SC DSS told 7NEWS they could not comment on the use of Propel and maintain the only authorized app is ConnectEBT. 

Renasia Dawkins said after $1,200 was stolen from her EBT card, downloading Propel was the only way she knew to help her track down where the money was spent.  

“The manager was able to come back to me and tell me who they had seen {sic} on camera and how they were using the card,” Dawkins said, who learned it was a friend who had stolen the funds. She now locks and unlocks her card with every usage. 

The harsh reality is that none of these victims we spoke with got reimbursed.  

“A lot of people are scared, and you don’t get protected. And I feel like you don’t get protected because you’re poor,” Mauldin said.  

They can only hope the state will work to make sure all EBT cardholders know to lock their funds so no one has to go hungry.