A program that feeds about 42 million people monthly uses magnetic stripe cards, technology that was outdated in 2015.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program should execute benefit theft prevention measures across the states and territories, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report published in September.
SNAP is a federal program that is administered by states. Six states are improving the security of social programs like SNAP, but more states should upgrade technology, or criminals will continue stealing from hungry families.
Six states have switched or are switching to more secure payment methods like Electronic Benefit Transfer cards embedded with chips or tap-to-pay that make it harder to steal - Alabama, California, Oklahoma, Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Michigan.
Criminals have stolen over $230 million in benefits from over 678,000 families in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps.
Most SNAP cards lack theft-prevention features, like microchips, that are standard on commercial debit cards - something that private banks started doing in 2015.
Criminals can steal from SNAP in many ways, including:
Card skimming. Thieves use an illegal skimming device to copy personal account information when a recipient swipes their card during a transaction.
Card cloning. Thieves transfer stolen card info on blank magnetic strip cards and then use the “cloned” cards to steal benefits for in-person or online purchases.
Phishing. Scams via text, email, or phone gather key EBT card information from vulnerable recipients.
Bot attacks. Bots make repeated inquiries and use online vulnerabilities to access key card information—such as card balances, valid PINs, and more—from retailers participating in SNAP.
Stolen numbers. Thieves use numbers assigned to authorized retailers to access payment networks that process SNAP transactions. Once they have access, thieves use stolen account info to drain recipients’ accounts.
Sometimes, state and federal employees steal benefits. One group of criminals, including a federal employee, stole $66 million from SNAP.
Michigan just allocated $16 million to upgrade its cards after criminals stole at least $14 million from SNAP in fiscal year 2024.
The SNAP program feeds about 42 million people a month but is riddled with fraud, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.
On my first day @USDA, we told every state to send us their SNAP data so we could make sure illegal immigrants aren’t getting benefits meant for American families. 29 states stepped up. 21 blue states refused — and two SUED US FOR ASKING! 🤦🏻♀️
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) November 2, 2025
And guess what? In just the states… pic.twitter.com/W7ha0Le1eN
The state of Minnesota, where criminals likely stole around $9 billion, isn’t upgrading its program security. Criminals steal from social programs nationwide.
This week, two Boston store owners from Haiti were arrested and accused of stealing $7 million from SNAP, Townhall reported.
In Pennsylvania, a store owner and six others were arrested and accused of stealing $775,000 from SNAP.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits have been reported stolen from SNAP recipients' EBT cards in recent years.
SNAP will provide approximately $96 billion in benefits to about 43 million people in fiscal year 2025, according to the report.
