*Residents in Baltimore are speaking out about being victims of SNAP scammers.
Thieves are reprotedly stealing cash benefits given to families through federal assistance programs. According to WMAR-2 News, the transitions occur hours after the benefits are deposited onto their EBT cards.
The state is reportedly seeing a spike in stolen benefits and the Maryland Department of Human Services is not reimbursing victims.
Per WMAR-2 News, the agency is “not able to reimburse victims with federal funds, however, Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger’s office confirmed that states have the ability to replace benefits with local or state funds.” The D.C. Department of Human Services is doing just that, according to the report.
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“Someone was like, ‘They just took a whole $800 from me.’ A girl said, ‘You too? They got me for [$600].’ And I’m sitting in the back and I’m like, ‘No baby, they got me for $2,200.’ The whole room got quiet,” said a woman named Jamee about her visit to Baltimore City Department of Social Services Penn-North Center.
“What’s going on? And now mind you, I have a whole new card, a whole new pin,” said the woman, whose Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) was swiped two months in a row at the same ATM, per the report.
Around 800,000 families receive benefits in Maryland and customers have been warned by the Maryland Department of Human Services about the rise in fraudulent activity. Per WMAR-2 News, around this time last year, there were 11 reported cases. Last month, there were more than 109. State senators are now addressing the issue.
Senator Cory McCray (D-Baltimore City) sent DHS Secretary Lourdes Padilla on June 8, in which he expressed concerns about the fraud cases. He wrote in part:
“Marylanders are currently being deprived of the provisions they need to survive, and the State is being robbed of its own resources. Our citizens are not only in need of justice: they need transparency and initiative. SNAP recipients should not be burdened with sacrificing basic household necessities and implementing meticulous security measures because the Department of Human Services fails to reasonably respond. These citizens need our help the most.”
“I personally think that the state should explore how we can make these people whole again. There’s nothing that prevents the state from spending state money at a time that we have a $7 billion surplus to reimburse these folks,” said Senator Katie Fry Hester (D- Howard & Carroll Counties), the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Biotechnology.
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