A New York mother is sounding the alarm after claiming thieves drained her family’s EBT card, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to feed her child in the middle of an ongoing SNAP theft crisis. The frustrated mother shared an emotional post that quickly drew attention from other users dealing with the same situation amid the soda and snack SNAP ban.
In the viral thread shared on the foodstamps subreddit, the New York mom blasted the system after discovering that her benefits had allegedly been depleted through unauthorized purchases. Like many other SNAP recipients across New York, she said she had no warning before the money disappeared. Her post’s visibility grew as commenters flooded the thread with stories of similar thefts happening across the country and advice on the situation. Here is what she said, edited for clarity.
Second time this happened. The first time was because of an app, okay, my fault. But the second time was just now. I normally get my benefits on the 8th. I checked the system, and it said I got them on the 6th. Okay, weird. I don’t like that there’s no notification.
Anyway, my entire balance was stolen in 10 transactions on the same day — over $500 stolen before I even got a chance to use it. I literally have one piece of meat in the freezer. I have a 1-year-old and was hoping to stock the fridge today, so much for that. Yeah, I get WIC, but it’s very minimal compared to when they covered formula.
Why the hell is no one stopping these thieves or at least making alerts like banks do? I wish they would fix the system — at minimum, notify me when the card is being used or when deposits hit. I’m furious.
And food banks are trash — either unhealthy crap or spoiled food. I have Type 1 diabetes, so I really have to manage what I eat and what my little one eats.
What’s even worse is they won’t replace the stolen benefits. I get that the funding was shut down, but they should at least replace it a limited number of times like banks do. I know it’s not exactly the same, but it should work like that, especially since we have to jump through so many hoops just to qualify for assistance. You work too much, you get nothing. You don’t have kids, you usually get nothing. Like come on, fix the system that’s been broken for over 30 years. (NYC btw)
It’s a very sad story, and unfortunately, New York no longer replaces stolen EBT funds. As if the SNAP ban wasn’t bad enough, things like this make a bad situation much worse. Some folks had sound advice on how to avoid the situation.
“This is the one that people are getting their info stolen off of, you need to look up your states ConnectEBT app and use that one, I have to enter a password to unlock the app and then unlock the card and then immediately lock as soon as my transaction is done, no phone calls”
“See if you can get a new card. Cancel that card that you have or it will happen again next month. So Sorry this happened to You.”
“I’m so sorry to hear this has happened to you. My son has had his EBT stolen twice and we live in Virginia. Now in Virginia the EBT connect application allows him to unlock his card right before he uses it at the grocery store and then he’s able to lock his card once he has paid for his groceries. So right now his card is locked. If your state does not have that ability to lock or unlock your EBT card, please contact your they representatives and have them push for this.”
As people mentioned in the thread, many SNAP users from New York are now warning others to lock their cards, frequently change their PINs, and monitor their balances daily, as state responses under the current administration lack the funds to help anyone in a meaningful way.
