The Georgia Department of Human Services has issued close to $3 million in replacement food stamp benefits due to fraud since fall of last year as DHS clients continue to report missing money from their EBT accounts, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
“Someone took the money off my card way up in New York,” Carla Bashir, who was among several people who showed up at the DHS office on Tuesday to report losses due to fraud in hopes of recouping the money, said, per the report. “I’m sitting in the house with nothing in my refrigerator.”
The state says that more than 7,000 claims for replacing missing SNAP benefits have been submitted since late last October and also said that DHS has approved more than 5,6000 of those claims.
DHS believes the fraud is related to EBT cards that have been skimmed, cloned, or otherwise stolen, and has shared the following tips to Fox 5 Atlanta:
- NEVER share sensitive information with an unsolicited requestor.
- Be wary of publicly posting information such as birthdays, children or pet names, workplaces, where you grew up, and other personal historical information on social media. Doing so can let scammers successfully answer challenge questions and reset passwords on your accounts without needing to interact with you at all.
- DHS customers should maintain strong, unique passwords for their Georgia Gateway accounts and never share personal account information with anyone who is not a designated caregiver.
- Save DHS’ primary phone number 877-423-4746 in your phone contacts, that way, when you need to reach us, you’ll have the correct phone number immediately available to you.
- If you suspect that a call you receive is a scam, hang up and call DHS directly using the phone number you saved in your contacts.
- If you suspect that an email, text message, website, or social media page/account is a scam, don’t open any links or attachments that you see. Instead, call DHS directly OR go to our website – dhs.georgia.gov.
- Be advised that DHS may serve you via social media, but over the phone we will ask for your Social Security number and banking information for verification and when submitting a new application.
- Georgians who think they’ve been the victim of a phishing scam involving their public benefits should contact the DHS Office of Inspector General at [email protected] or 877-423-4746, option 4.
- SNAP recipients who have been the victim of fraud can submit a request for replacement benefits and learn more on this webpage. No police report is required.
