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Food stamp fraud forces Georgia families to go without this Thanksgiving

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Published  November 26, 2024 5:52pm EST
Georgia
FOX 5 Atlanta

Millions of dollars in food stamps fraud hurts families in need

Millions of dollars of fraud in the SNAP or food stamps program have hit many families hard this holiday season. FOX 5 Atlanta met up with a few local families whose benefits have been impacted.

The Brief

    • Families receiving SNAP benefits are continuing to report thefts of funds from their accounts.
    • Cierra Freeman discovered almost all of her $1,500 SNAP benefits for November were spent in various states, leaving her with a penny for Thanksgiving shopping.
    • Another victim said this is the third month in a row that she has been targeted.
    • The Department of Human Services has documented over 14,000 fraud claims since October 2023, with the majority approved for replacement funds, amounting to $6.4 million in refunds for stolen benefits.

Families receiving SNAP benefits, better known as food stamps, continue to be baffled as their funds are being stolen.

Cierra Freeman is trying to scrape together what she can to take care of her kids.

Right now, she's driving with Uber to pay as many bills as she can. She also gets food stamps to help feed her family.

"It covers making sure they eat every day," says the mother of six.

Last Tuesday, she expected more than $1,500 to drop into her account.

She was looking forward to starting some of her Thanksgiving shopping.

However, on Nov. 19, she saw almost all of her allotted benefits missing.

"Every last dime. [They] left me with, like, a penny in my account," says Freeman. "It was taken out starting at 7 at night on the 18th."

The missing money was spent at delis and grocery stores in the Bronx, New York, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Camden, New Jersey, Tampa and more.

"I'm not sure what I can do for Thanksgiving," says Freeman.

Woman's food stamps stolen 3 times in a row

Mia Fricks says thieves have stolen her food stamps benefits for the third month in a row, and says she has no idea if this will be the last time she has to go without.

Mia Fricks of Floyd County looks at her fridge days before the big holiday and cannot believe she's had her EBT funds stolen three months straight. 

Victims can only be reimbursed twice a year up until Dec. 20.  

She believes the theft is extremely suspicious because she only received her first replacement card Tuesday. She cannot believe someone could have stolen her PIN that quickly.

"It's really hard and aggravating. You can't get a hold of anyone to help figure this out," says Fricks. "It's an inside job, it's got to be an inside job."

The Department of Human Services says there have been 14,409 fraud claims submitted since October 2023. 12,424 of those claims have been approved for replacement funds.

Since last Fall, $6.4 million has been spent refunding stolen benefits.

Although Fricks just received her new EBT card, she is not confident this fraud won't happen again.

Here are suggestions from DHS on how to handle fraud and report it:

SNAP fraud (card skimming, card cloning, phishing, etc.) is not isolated to a particular area. Unfortunately, it can happen anywhere in Georgia or across the country, even online. That’s why we continue to educate our customers on these best practices to protect their SNAP benefits:

  • Never share sensitive information with an unsolicited requestor.
  • Be wary of publicly posting information such as birthdays, children or pet names, workplaces, where you grew up, and other personal historical information on social media. Doing so can let scammers successfully answer challenge questions and reset passwords on your accounts without needing to interact with you at all.
  • DHS customers should maintain strong, unique passwords for their Georgia Gateway accounts and never share personal account information with anyone who is not a designated caregiver.
  • Save DHS’ primary phone number 877-423-4746 in your phone contacts. That way, when you need to reach out, you’ll have the correct phone number immediately available to you.
  • If you suspect that a call you receive is a scam, hang up and call DHS directly using the phone number you saved in your contacts.
  • If you suspect that an email, text message, website, or social media page/account is a scam, don’t open any links or attachments that you see. Instead, call DHS directly, or go to the website at dhs.georgia.gov. 
  • Be advised that DHS may serve you via social media, but over the phone, will ask for your Social Security number and banking information for verification and when submitting a new application.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service put together a dashboard of state-reported data around SNAP fraud. Please note, this dashboard is not updated in real-time.

The Source: This story was reported by FOX 5 Atlanta's Kevyn Stewart.