Scammers Are Stealing Money From EBT Cards, Leaving Low Income Californians With Little Money for Food
“USC professor and security expert Clifford Neuman said thieves are stealing the money using a skimmer, a device they attach to ATMs or point-of-sale terminals at grocery stores recipients’ use. Once the thieves have the money, it can be spent anywhere. ‘Someone has a skimmer. They steal the information on these cards. And then they post it on the dark web. They sell it to others on the dark web. So the fact that the card is here in California and used somewhere else, is actually quite typical,’ said Neuman. The state government funds the cards and doesn’t deny the problem. When the I-Team first reported the ongoing fraud in November, the state told us thieves had stolen nearly $24 million in one year from EBT cards. Since then, that number has gone up another $10 million.”