CLEVELAND — Cuyahoga County is seeing a spike in electronic benefits theft, just as a lifeline for victims is about to expire.
Last week, Patricia Warren was shocked to realize that her EBT, or food stamp, card had been drained. Her monthly payment of $153 arrived at midnight and disappeared while she was sleeping, leaving only a few dollars in her account.
“How can they do this?" she said on Monday while sitting in the living room of her house on Cleveland’s East Side.
The 65-year-old great-grandmother isn’t alone.
Cuyahoga County has received a record-high 1,199 reports of EBT theft this month – and it’s only mid-December. Such thefts, carried out by sophisticated criminal rings using card-skimming devices to steal data, are a growing problem across the country.
Ohio has processed more than 25,000 food-stamp theft reports since June of 2023. And the state has repaid upwards of $12.6 million in stolen benefits, using federal money to make families whole.
But that reimbursement window will close this week unless lawmakers in Washington, D.C., act. Congress is wrangling over a short-term spending bill – a continuing resolution – to avoid a government shutdown. If the repayment program isn’t extended as part of that negotiation, Ohio EBT cardholders who get scammed after Friday, Dec. 20, will be out of luck.
“I think they need to step up and try to figure out how to get this done. And handle it,” Warren said.
'Dismantling public trust in public benefits'
Advocates are watching the federal process closely. For now, they’re just hoping the repayment program will survive.
In the long term, they’re pushing for better security on EBT cards – the same embedded chips you see on debit cards and credit cards. EBT cards just have a magnetic stripe and a PIN, making them particularly vulnerable to fraud.
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At the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, EBT theft is straining an already stressed system.
On Monday, customers wheeled shopping carts through the market at the food bank's community resource center on Cleveland's East Side. The shelves teemed with fruit, greens, canned goods and milk.
Down the hall, the lobby was packed with people. A wall of flyers included handouts about how to protect your SNAP, or food assistance, benefits. The food bank has been hearing from fraud victims for months.
“Every day we have people calling into our help center, coming into our community resource center,” said Katie Gedeon, the food bank’s community access manager.
“They’re asking for help to fill out the SNAP fraud form,” she added, “but they’re also coming to us to be connected to food to supplement that loss. … We’re seeing mothers who are trying to put food on the table for their family. We’re seeing older adults who are living on a fixed income.”
Food banks are serving more people than ever – and having to get creative to meet the demand. They need SNAP, which provides nine meals for every meal a food bank serves, to work.
And they need cardholders to trust a government program that, right now, is leaving them open to being preyed upon.
“The SNAP skimming issue is huge,” said Hope Lane-Gavin, the director of nutrition policy and programs at the Ohio Association of Foodbanks in Columbus. “It’s also just dismantling public trust in public benefits.”
'Just a horrible crime'
Congress created the federal reimbursement program in late 2022. The money flows through the states, through agencies like the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Theft victims can only get reimbursed twice a year for up to two months’ worth of benefits.
Legislators in some states have stepped in to fill the gaps, making sure victims get back everything they’ve lost. That’s not the case in Ohio.
Across the country, the federal government has paid out more than $150 million in reimbursements, according to a tracker on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website. That’s money taxpayers are spending twice – once for the original benefits payments and again to replace what thieves took.
Federal law gives cardholders 90 days to file a theft report. County agencies have 30 days to respond. Ohio rolled out its repayment process in mid-2023 and requires victims to fill out a form and submit it to their county’s job and family services agency.
In Cuyahoga County, it’s taking four to five weeks now to investigate the fraud reports and get reimbursements out the door. Many families who were victimized this month will not get their grocery money back before the holidays.
“We’re trying to find more resources to devote to this,” said Kevin Gowan, who leads the county’s job and family services department. “Unfortunately, this is a busy time of year for us normally.”
Local fraud claims jumped in February and March before falling during the spring and early summer.
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Then they soared in August – and they’ve stayed high. Since September, the county has received more than 900 repayment requests each month.
Now Gowan and his staff are seeing another surge. If fraud claims keep coming at this pace, the county could replace $1.6 million in benefits this month, he said.
“This is just a horrible crime taking advantage of people who are in the most need,” Gowan added.
He and other officials are urging cardholders to take precautions by changing their PINs frequently. Ohio also allows cardholders to temporarily lock their cards through a mobile app called ConnectEBT. Food-stamp recipients can unlock their cards at the checkout and then lock them again after paying.
Warren didn’t know about that card-lock option until recently. She hasn’t been able to access the ConnectEBT app on her phone.
She uses a different app to track spending and monitor her balance. And she can see the recent transaction that wiped out most of her money - $149.54 at 4.32 a.m. on Dec. 10. The address is a one-time automotive repair shop in Aroma Park, Illinois, south of Chicago.
“It’s just unfair,” Warren said. “Think about it. Would they like that happening to them? Would you like that happening to your mother or your father or your sister?”
'This doesn't make sense'
The U.S. Secret Service and partner agencies are chasing the thieves. In an email, Blaine Forschen, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Cleveland field office, said the task force is still investigating card-skimming incidents from early this year.
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“Several suspects have been identified in the cases,” he wrote. “Northern Ohio was not (the) only area that they committed these crimes. In fact, several of our suspects have been arrested in other states, and the (assistant U.S. attorneys’) offices are in discussions on which jurisdiction they should be prosecuted in.”
He said the agencies haven’t received any recent card-skimming reports.
Warren, who is disabled, is preparing to celebrate the holidays with her daughters, 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
She’ll lean on that large family, the food bank and her faith to get by. Even if the federal reimbursement program ends, she'll be eligible for repayment since her benefits were stolen before Dec. 20.
A longtime childcare provider, Warren spent decades caring for others. Now a system set up to care for her has, instead, left her almost empty-handed.
“This doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “It really doesn’t.”
