Card skimming is on the rise in California, but it’s not just affecting normal credit card holders.
It's also impacting people’s food benefits on the central coast, according to San Luis Obispo county officials. The county’s Department of Social Services and other agencies are planning to replace people’s stolen food benefits.
The Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT program provides food security to low-income people through food stamps and cash aid. It works like a debit card and people can use it at stores to purchase food.
Robb Koch, the Program Manager for SLO County’s Social Services Department, said EBT is vital for recipients.
“This EBT theft is kind of a bummer, but outside of that, CalFresh is a great benefit,” he said. “It does help supplement a household's grocery bill and can really provide us a little bit more breathing room in these tough financial times.”
A skimmer is a device that's placed on top of card readers. It collects card numbers and PIN codes, which are then used to make fraudulent purchases.
At the moment, the data for EBT card skimming in SLO County is unavailable since it’s collected by the state. However, SLO County Social Services says they are trying to gain access to the data and release it to the public. Despite not having the exact numbers, Koch and his team say they have heard complaints from clients.
According to Koch, people who had their benefits stolen between October 2022 and last month have until February 2024 to file a report. Eligible applicants include those whose previous claims were denied, who hadn’t submitted a claim in the right time frame or who were not rewarded the total amount of benefits that were stolen. Currently, there’s a two-month cap for the replacement of benefits.
Koch said just this month, the state’s Department of Social Services adjusted the rules for replacing food aid. Cardholders now have 90 days to report their incident. Previously, recipients only had 10 days to report stolen benefits.
The Electronic Theft form can be completed in person with a social services representative or completed online.
Koch said that recipients should use their benefits as soon as possible to avoid theft.
“If they were saving up hundreds and hundreds of dollars and they have something stolen, they may not be able to get all of that replaced. So we try to encourage our participants to, for the food stamp part, the CalFresh part of the EBT card, to use those benefits monthly,” he said.
SLO County officials said most electronic EBT thefts happen at the beginning of the month when the benefits are loaded to the card.
Meanwhile, the San Luis Obispo Food Bank will provide cardholders with groceries while they wait to have their benefits replaced. The CalFresh Outreach Manager with the SLO Food Bank, Venessa Rodriguez, says that the food bank is open to all.
“If anyone throughout the county were impacted by that and needed to have food resources, they're more than happy to either visit our food distributions, which are public sites throughout the months that we have on a reoccurring basis or any of our agency partners, which are other local nonprofits that provide food services,” she said.
The food bank is accessible to people with or without CalFresh benefits. They also offer a food map on their website where individuals can find food resources near them.
The county recommends avoiding EBT Theft by hiding your card information and having cardholders use the EBT-edge mobile app. The app allows users to change their PIN, freeze and replace their card as well as block transactions. People who think they might have gotten their benefits stolen are recommended to immediately cancel their cards.
For more information on EBT Cards and replacing stolen benefits, visit www.ebt.ca.gov.
