On Your Side: Thieves targeting Californians on food stamps
Retiree Terry Bolo was checking out at the grocery store when something went wrong with her government assistance card.
"He kept swiping it and swinging it and I didn't know what was wrong," she said. "He said well it says you don't have any money and I was like 'What?!'"
Both Bolo's EBT card for food stamps and her EDD card for unemployment were drained. She was left with not a single dollar either.
"The cards never left my possession," said Bolo."I can't even figure out how they did it."
Bolo's cards had been skimmed. Thieves stole more than $1,300 from her EBT card using the money at various locations in Utah. Los Angeles Police Department Captain Al Lopez displayed a skimming device so thin it's virtually undetectable. The crooks then use a pinhole camera to capture the PIN.
"These individuals have an extreme amount of training in what they do," said Lopez. "They rehearse what they do. They can put the skimmer in and the camera in within minutes."
Lopez added that the thieves are targeting major banks across every city, in the Los Angeles area.
Of the 20,000 identity theft crimes the LAPD investigated in 2022, more than a third were related to EBT Fraud. It's cost taxpayers millions.
In California, the amount the state has had to reimburse CalWORKs and CalFresh recipients skyrocketed from less than $100,000 in July 2021 to nearly $6.5 million in November of last year.
This fraud isn't just happening in California though — it's a nationwide problem.
"During the month of December there were over 18,000 complaints to police departments stating their SNAP benefits were stolen," said cyber security expert Haywood Talcove. "If you go back five months ago, there were less than 2,000."
Talcove said thieves are selling skimmed EBT cards on the dark web, spotting a few peddling stolen card numbers and pins.
"We have the Nigerians involved. We have the Russians involved. We have the Chinese involved," said Talcove. "The same criminal groups that robbed EDD are now focused on the SNAP program in California and across the county."
Experts said until the state starts using chip-enabled EBT cards instead of those with magnetic strips, theft is only going to continue to rise.
"I mean they give you this card to use and they can't guarantee the safety of it," said Bolo.
Bolo was reimbursed for one month of her EBT benefits but the nearly $1,000 she had in reserves is gone.
"It's food out of my mouth. I was counting on that," she said.
In February, law enforcement arrested 15 people for allegedly using skimmed EBT cards at 20 ATMs throughout the LA area. Federal court documents said those stolen cards amounted to about $39 million in lost food aid to some of our most vulnerable residents."