A surge in SNAP benefits theft exceeding $10 million since last fall has Pennsylvania lawmakers and advocates pushing for swift card security upgrades.

As skimming devices pop up across the state, including in Westmoreland County, more people using the federal food aid benefits are reporting that scammers drained their accounts. And a solution to stop the thefts — if state leaders budget for it — could take over a year to have in place.

People can lock their cards when not in use, but once their benefits are stolen, they have little recourse. The federal government stopped offering reimbursement for stolen benefits on Dec. 20.

That means families go hungry when scammers steal their card information, said Heather Seiders, interim executive director of Just Harvest, a nonprofit that aims to reduce hunger in Allegheny County.

“There’s no way for people to replace these stolen benefits. It means that when a parent’s card is drained, their kids are hungry,” she said. “People aren’t able to feed their families because this is happening, and it’s through no fault of their own. It’s a criminal act, and they’re being punished for it.”

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, provides funding for low-income households to buy food. More than 2 million Pennsylvanians are enrolled — more than half are in families with children.

Nearly 144,000 Pennsylvanians could lose their SNAP benefits under federal cuts and stricter eligibility requirements. 

When someone swipes a SNAP EBT card at a card reader compromised by a skimming device, the scammer can use the information stolen off the card to make purchases with the victim’s SNAP benefits.

Currently, SNAP benefits are loaded onto EBT cards that don’t have chips that allow users to pay by tapping or inserting the card. Those chips are more secure and prevent skimming, but EBT cards haven’t caught up to debit and credit cards.

More than $10 million in benefits were reported stolen since October, Seiders said.

Since reimbursements ended in December until Aug. 1, the state Department of Human Services — which administers the SNAP program — received almost 17,500 reports of SNAP theft statewide, said DHS spokesperson Brandon Cwalina. That’s a jump compared to the nearly 19,000 theft reports from October 2022 to December 2024. 

Not all cases of theft are skimming — phishing scams are another way thieves steal benefits — but skimming has become more common as scammers struggle to steal from more secure cards, such as debit and credit cards.

Now, states across the country are looking to change that. 

California was the first state in the country to transition to chip cards for SNAP in January.

Conduent, the company responsible for managing Pennsylvania’s EBT cards, is piloting the chip EBT card in Oklahoma. Three more states are beginning the process, but universal standards have to be established first to ensure that cards can be used across state lines.

Conduent points to a 2019 study by Visa that found fraud dropped by 87% after chip cards were implemented. Switching EBT cards to chip would likely result in a similar drop, said Jamie Topolski, senior director of government payment products at Conduent.

New EBT chip cards would also come with a security code, like credit and debit cards, to prevent fraud in online purchases.

The switch to chip cards could take up to 18 months, said Ann Sanders, director of public benefits policy and programs for Just Harvest. In the meantime, the organization is telling SNAP recipients to lock their cards through the ConnectEBT mobile app when not making purchases.

The Next Generation Newsroom is a regional news service that focuses on government and enterprise reporting in southwestern Pennsylvania. Find out more information on foundation and corporate funders here.  

Abigail is a Pittsburgh-based freelance multimedia journalist and staff reporter with Next Generation Newsroom. Email her at abigailhakas@yahoo.com.

Erin Yudt

Erin Yudt is a reporter with Pittsburgh Media Partnership Newsroom, part of the Center for Media Innovation at Point Park University. She most recently was a multimedia content producer and digital reporter at WKBN in Youngstown and is a graduate of Point Park University. Email her at erin.yudt@pointpark.edu.