Evangelisse Tapia didn’t know her money had been stolen until it was long gone.
“One day, I went shopping and bought a few things and then the next day — I had some money saved on it for like a week for my kids for school. The next day, I noticed that when I went to go check to send my daughter to the store so we could make some soup. And I just saw zero balance.”
The amount stolen from Tapia’s SNAP card in September — $239 — represents more than a quarter of the monthly income she uses to support herself and her four children. That $239 is the difference between eating that night and sending her kids to bed hungry, the difference between a home-cooked meal and a long wait in line at the food pantry.
Her toddler’s birthday was a couple days later. Tapia had to dig into her cash savings to buy him a birthday cake.
New York is seeing a spike in benefit fraud — mostly flying under the radar of local elected officials and punted around by different city, state and federal agencies.
Worse, because both the federal and state agencies prevent refunds, there is little if no recourse for the victims. Money stolen is money lost.
Tapia called the police, who she said told her that she was the victim of “skimming” — but that they couldn’t help her. She called the customer service on the back of her SNAP/EBT card, which went to the city’s Human Resources Administration. They sent her to the state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, or OTDA. No one helped.
“This is an issue that is particularly frustrating because it’s not getting the light that it deserves,” NYS Assembly Member Khaleel Anderson said. “This is a major fraud scandal that’s taking place right under our noses impacting the most vulnerable among us and we’re not even talking about it.”
“We’re seeing people losing hundreds of dollars in benefits,” said Anderson, a Queens Democrat. “And these are Black, brown folks, immigrants, communities that are being targeted and attacked through this phishing, scams and fraudulent activity. And that’s what we hear on the ground, and it’s rather unfortunate because there’s so many people that are faced with this crisis.”
Scope of problem
Tapia, of Far Rockaway, is among at least 2,200 New Yorkers who have been the victims of benefit theft by card skimming schemes this year, according to data the Empire Justice Center and The Legal Aid Society obtained from OTDA. In New York City, as of Sept. 9, the Department of Social Services estimated at least 1,200 victims.
Both numbers are likely much higher now as skimming continues to spread and many cases go unreported.
These benefits are a critical lifeline for low-income, elderly and disabled New Yorkers. More than half of recipient households are families with children and about 48% include an adult over the age of 55 or a person with a disability, according to a report from this year. The scope is huge — about $1.7 million city residents, or 20% of NYC’s population, rely on food stamps.
Several victims say they had hundreds of dollars suddenly drained from their EBT cards. Their statements both showed charges to places they’ve never been — for example, one Queens resident said her funds appeared to be used at a Long Beach, N.Y., bank on a day she was in Brooklyn.
EBT cards are like prepaid debit cards — but are particularly vulnerable to losses from skimming scams. New York’s cards, unlike some other states, aren’t made with chips — a security measure required by the state for debit and credit cards since 2015.
Moreover, there’s no way to get a refund. SNAP/EBT is federally funded by the USDA and administered by OTDA. USDA prohibits federal funds being used to reimburse stolen funds.
With no recourse, fraud victims are forced to turn to food pantries — which are already experiencing an enormous amount of strain from inflation, an influx of migrants and pandemic-driven economic insecurity.
“No one is taking ownership for the investigations,” Chelsea Binns, a professor in the Department of Security, Fire and Emergency Management at John Jay College, said. “That could be because they are multiple agencies involved and no one agency has taken ownership for when fraud happens. When it happens, no one is tasked with investigating it.”
Lobbying for payback
Pressing for change, 22 assembly members wrote in November to the state agency that administers the program, OTDA, calling for more action. Legal Aid called for action in a letter last week, first reported by The City, requesting OTDA replace and reimburse clients for all stolen benefits.
While federal funds are unavailable for reimbursement, states can choose to dig into their own pockets to refund stolen money. Others do. NY doesn’t — a state statute blocks the state from replacing stolen public assistance money.
Officials at key agencies declined to say if they were considering such a step, but emphasized how seriously they take fraud. The NYPD did not respond to repeated requests for comment on how it investigates these crimes.
“OTDA takes seriously any report of benefit theft and continues to work closely with local, state, and federal authorities to provide any information they require that will help bring perpetrators to justice,” Anthony Farmer, OTDA spokesperson said in a statement.
“Protecting our clients from any instances of fraud and misconduct when accessing vital social services is a top priority,” Neha Sharma, a spokesperson for DSS/HRA, which is locally responsible for administering the benefits, said. ” … [W]e have implemented various agency-wide safeguards, which include robust accountability and oversight mechanisms, fraud prevention resources and related outreach, and ensuring that any such instances are promptly investigated and addressed.”
Merowe Nubyahn, 42, of St. Albans, had her EBT card drained of $100. When she went to the police, they said she needed notarized proof of the stolen money. Nubyahn is eight months pregnant and the sole provider for her four other children.
“I’m familiar with poor people in my situation not necessarily being made a priority when it comes to criminal activities or injustices to our people,” Nubyahn said, adding that she read up on the problem and discovered that it was happening across the country.
” … And I’m just like, how are they doing this? And how come there’s not more of an effort to track down who’s responsible for doing this? Why isn’t there any more protection being put in place for the people that are financially underprivileged such as myself?”
One family of two parents and a 16-year-old child with disabilities told Legal Aid one day, they went to a store with $1,200 on their card. When they came back two days later, they learned that there was a $54 balance, leaving them with just $54 for food for three weeks.
Nicole Huang of the Parent-Child Relationship Association, a nonprofit that serves Chinese immigrants in Sunset Park and Dyker Heights, says victims get punted around by different agencies. Huang said she also saw an uptick this year — as many as 15 people in a month in her office. Said the process can be especially difficult for those who don’t speak English.
“It’s hard to call the number for HRA,” Huang said. “They transfer for you for a long time, and then they just hang up. They have languages, but they take a long time”
Recognizing that there’s no recourse, she said she focuses on telling people in her community about ways they can prevent their benefits being stolen. The impact, she said, can be devastating.
“Some families try to save money for the holiday, and then, the money was gone… They need the money for food, the kids. When it gets stolen, what are they gonna do?”
