Delaware replaces more than $615,000 in stolen SNAP benefits so far in 2024

SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. (CBS) — Julie Ebeling holds back tears Monday morning after she says her EBT card was erased. She discovered it when she tried to pay for groceries last week.

“I’m in tears. I can’t say anything else about it. Like someone literally stole all my food for the month,” Ebeling said. “It was horrible. People behind me were ready to pay and I was like, ‘No, you shouldn’t have to, I appreciate it,’ but I felt embarrassed.”

The Sussex County, Delaware, woman said she got a call a few days before she was due to receive $274 in monthly food stamps asking her to verify her account information. Worried she was going to lose her benefits, she called back and gave her account number and PIN.

“It said this was Social Services of Delaware calling to verify your identity for food stamps… It sounded as real as it could be,” Ebeling said. “And it wasn’t.”

The 57-year-old immediately went to her local social services and filed a police report, saying her card and benefits had been used in New York City, a place she hadn’t been in 15 years.

Almost a week later, Ebeling is still waiting for a new card to arrive in the mail. It, she was told, shows her replacement benefit.

“I have no food and no map anymore. I feel naked,” said Ebeling.

No one from the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services was available for an interview Monday before CBS News Philadelphia’s deadline. However, a spokesperson said the department is aware of the phone scam and that the agency “will never contact clients to ask” for EBT card numbers or PINs.

The spokesperson also said that since DHHS began replacing benefits on Dec. 1, 2023, it has received 1,500 reports of stolen benefits, of which about 1,470 have been resolved. Normally, the spokesperson added, it takes 10 business days to get replacement benefits. With “spikes in fraud reports,” it could take longer.

So far in 2024, DHSS has replaced “approximately $619,000 in stolen SNAP benefits.”

US Secret Service Investigates

On July 9, CBS News Philadelphia interviewed Michael Centrella, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Philadelphia office.

“This is a branch of a criminal organization that we call transnational organized crime, which comes from Eastern Europe,” Centrella said.

The agency is responsible for investigating all financial crimes, including EBT fraud. In CBS News Philadelphia’s coverage, we shared how the Secret Service investigates EBT fraud as part of transnational organized crime.

“In 2022, financial crimes in the United States had a loss of about $10 billion. The skimming itself, about $1 billion. Of that here in Pennsylvania, about $250 million,” Centrella said.

The Secret Service says it has seen an increase in “point-of-sale” — meaning where retail transactions are made — over the past 18-24 months along with “ATM skimming related activities.”

Although card skimming is often used in EBT fraud, we contacted Centrella again after hearing from Ebeling. He classifies the phone fraud she endured as a phishing scam.

“The scams haven’t changed. Some of the techniques have changed. Some of the targets have changed. But as financial crimes evolve, as the effects on our credit cards, the effects on our financial systems change, the criminals change,” Centrella said.

Centrella noted that EBT cards are easy targets because they don’t have extra security features, such as a microchip. He added that the agency is working with lawmakers to get chip cards into the hands of people who use public assistance.