The US Department of Agriculture has spent the past week notifying people that the country is (allegedly) overrun by individuals who are fraudulently claiming SNAP benefits, while (allegedly) driving luxury vehicles.
“In just ONE state, 14,000 individuals receiving SNAP benefits were driving LUXURY VEHICLES!” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins posted on X last week. The official USDA account made similar claims, which were then amplified by figures like Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Rand Paul.
Those numbers are questionable at best. For one thing, the report they come from doesn’t name the state where thousands of people are allegedly buying Ferraris while using government money to buy food. For another, that report doesn’t include any explanation of its methodology.
The “luxury vehicle” angle is clearly a scam, but there is evidence of SNAP fraud, at least here in Oregon, it’s just being done with card skimmers stealing legitimate SNAP data and funds from the people who need it most:
https://www.doj.state.or.us/media-home/news-media-releases/attorney-general-rayfield-issues-consumer-alert-scammers-targeting-oregonians-with-ebt-skimmers/
"How the scam works
Scammers place an overlay device on card readers or keypads, often at smaller retailers such as dollar stores or community markets.
These devices look nearly identical to real machines but secretly collect card numbers and PINs.
Stolen card data is then used in other states to purchase high-demand items like baby formula or resold goods"
The fix for this should be simple: EBT funds should only be accessible in the state where the card was issued.
So what you’re saying is people in need are getting their benefits stolen. That’s not at all what the administration is claiming or expressing concern about.
Nope, still fraud, just not on the part of the benefit holder.
So if these machines are skimming all cards numbers/pins then surely the answer is to restrict everyone’s cards, credit, debit, everything to their own state?
Why is it your logic that only the poor people need to be restricted because other people are stealing from them? Where’s the logic in going after the victims of fraud?
Other cards already have these protections, the EBT cards do not. That’s the problem.
If they were secured the same way as credit/debit cards we wouldn’t be seeing this problem.
I should say too… EBT cards are already restricted as far as what they can be used for, it only makes sense to flag where they can be used as well.
So then protect the cards without excessive restrictions that aren’t put on other cards. Freedom of movement is a human right so to restrict someone’s essential payment method state to state seems like a breach of that.
Again, EBT cards are already restricted.
https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligible-food-items
They just aren’t restricted in a way that would prevent stealing the funds.