Federal law requires states to refund stolen benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but that could change soon.
In Lexington at Coolavin Park, when Barbara Gieske woke up Tuesday, she discovered major issues with her EBT Card.
“I only had 55 cents, and they had literally taken $732 off of my EBT card,” Gieske said.
Gieske said she was hacked by someone in the Bronx, New York.
“It was debits from a deli in Bronx, New York and I don’t live in New York, so I don’t understand how they got my information,” Gieske added.
As Gieske waits to get reimbursed, a process that could take up to two weeks, she won’t have money she was counting on to get groceries for her two kids.
Tyler Offerman, a food justice organizer, refers to 2020 and COVID-19 as a critical turning point in the uptick in EBT Theft.
“The rise of this sort of Cyber criminal enterprise that has just had a confluence of the rise of AI technology,” Gieske said.
EBT theft is an ongoing issue for grocers too and the director of communications for the Kentucky Grocers and Convenience Store Association pointed out the impact from the perspective of his members.