Authorities have reported instances of skimming scams in Connecticut and SNAP Benefits-for-Cash Fraud found in Portsmouth as Americans continue to struggle financially due to the economy.
As life gets more expensive for everyone, many Virginians are relying on the government for support for their daily needs. A portion of that assistance comes from the benefits of food stamps, which are known as SNAP benefits.
SNAP Benefits
However, some residents are still taking advantage of these benefits for their own good even at the expense of other people. A Portsmouth woman, Sara Levi, said that she has seen people in her neighborhood selling their SNAP benefits for the money.
"I've seen people, where I live, hand somebody their card and get money. I don't understand why we don't stop some of this fraud," Levi said. She makes roughly $10,000 per year and relies on social security and SNAP benefits to get by. Despite this, the resident has said that it was barely enough, as per WTKR.
Levi questioned how the government expects her to live on $800 per month with gas taking up $55 every two weeks. She said that there were just many factors and expenditures that ate up all of her money. This is the reason that she thought that has caused many people to cheat the system.
The resident said that in her Portsmouth neighborhood she sees people selling their food stamps for cash and pocketing the money. She noted that when someone is getting cash for their food stamps and is still getting food from every food bank in Portsmouth something was definitely wrong.
According to KFOR News, the situation comes as food assistance programs become a lifeline for thousands of Oklahomans and millions of residents from across the United States. One resident Katherine Henderson and her family of five rely on SNAP benefits to get by.
Skimming Scams
But earlier this month, she received bad news at the grocery store where she got a receipt that said there was only $20 left. She was surprised and thought that it was not accurate because that day was supposed to be the day to get her deposit.
The situation was a result of roughly $1,000 in government assistance dollars being stolen and taken out by someone in California. Katherine said that when she called the Department of Homeland Security they revealed a troubling trend, potentially at local big box chains.
She said that stores had skimmers on their self-checkout, and people have been stealing SNAP numbers through the skimmers. Apparently, the criminals took a lot of people's money all at once.
Oklahoma City Police put out a warning a couple of weeks ago as skimmers have become a problem that is widespread across the Metro. People on SNAP are particularly vulnerable as the money stolen is non-refundable.
The Department of Social Services warned Connecticut residents who are on SNAP to be wary of skimming scams. There have also been reports of a phishing scam in the area where SNAP recipients receive scam text messages regarding their DSS benefits, NEWS8 reported.
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