The U.S. Secret Service conducted 22 EBT fraud and ATM skimming outreach projects in various cities nationwide in 2025.
In total, law enforcement visited more than 9,000 businesses during these operations and removed 411 illegal skimming devices, preventing an estimated potential loss of more than $428.1 million. In total, nearly 60,000 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs were inspected.
Locations included Los Angeles, Washington DC, Anchorage, Boston, Orlando, Charlotte, Buffalo, San Diego, New York City, San Antonio, Baltimore, Tampa, Atlanta, Savannah, Memphis, Miami, and Pittsburgh. In some cities, multiple operations were conducted.
The federal government reported that it had replaced $322 million in stolen benefits across every state and territory from fiscal year 2023 to 2025. Nearly 679,000 households have reported stolen benefits across 1.9 million transactions.
These states submitted the most food stamp fraud claims, according to a dashboard.
- New York: 151,738
- California: 85,978
- Texas: 57,187
- Illinois: 41,565
Teams also distributed educational materials about Electronic Benefit Transfer fraud and skimming to help businesses identify illegal skimming devices in their point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to combatting EBT fraud and credit card skimming throughout the country. These proactive operations are aimed at finding and removing devices before criminals can recover the stolen card numbers they contain,” said Kyo Dolan, Assistant Director for the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of Field Operations. “These operations are only the start. We are working closely with our local, state, federal and international law enforcement partners to investigate and dismantle the criminal organizations that perpetrate these crimes.”
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Criminals often steal EBT and other payment card numbers by installing illegal skimming devices on ATMs, gas pumps and merchant point-of-sale terminals. Scammers use skimming technology to capture card information from EBT cards and encode that data onto another card with a magnetic strip.
Law enforcement agencies have seen a nationwide increase in skimming, particularly targeting EBT cards. EBT fraud targets the nation’s most vulnerable communities. Each month, money is deposited into government assistance accounts intended to help families pay for food and other basic items. This enables criminals who steal card information to time their fraudulent withdrawals and purchases around the monthly deposits.
There are several precautions consumers can take to protect themselves:
- Inspect ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and other card readers. Look for anything loose, crooked, damaged, or scratched. Do not use a card reader if anything appears unusual.
- Whenever possible, use tap-to-pay technology or use debit and credit cards with chip technology.
- If using a debit card at a gas station, run it as a credit card to avoid entering a PIN number. If that is not an option, consumers should use their hand to hide their PIN to block scammers who may be using tiny pinhole cameras above the keypad area to record entries. Use ATMs in a well-lit, indoor location, which are less vulnerable targets.
- Be alert for skimming devices in tourist areas, which are popular targets.
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