Food stamp benefits card (EBT) misuse is becoming increasingly serious, with criminals using various methods to extract funds, causing a severe impact on those who truly need help. Yesterday (28th), New York State Assemblyman Cotten and City Councilwoman Chong Wenyi’s office jointly held a press conference with elderly EBT cardholders who had their cards stolen, addressing the prevalent methods of misuse and proposing several solutions to urge the government to implement stronger security measures.
Assemblyman Cotten stated that over the past few months, hundreds of constituents have reported to him and Chong Wenyi’s office about their EBT cards being fraudulently used. Many people have found that the funds deposited by the government into their benefit cards were quickly stolen during the late hours of the night, leaving them with zero balance in the morning when they tried to use it. These funds are usually extracted by interstate scam artists through online means.
To reduce the risk of fraud, Cotten urged the government to consider issuing benefit cards with chips and contactless technology to replace the current magnetic stripe cards that are easily cloned by thieves to steal identity data, thereby reducing the possibility of identity information and accounts being stolen from a technological perspective. When using a chip card, users only need to lightly touch the machine to conduct transactions without the need to swipe or insert the card.
Representing City Councilwoman Chong Wenyi, Xie Xiaoqiong suggested introducing automatic protection features to automatically lock out-of-state and online transactions. She pointed out that many elderly people are not familiar with technology operations and have difficulty enabling protection functions on their own, thus the community urgently needs more volunteers to assist them in applying for online protection. By implementing automated transaction monitoring, the burden on volunteers could be reduced while ensuring the account security of the elderly.
Xie Xiaoqiong also mentioned the “account freeze” function, recommending that seniors use this feature when they detect any abnormalities in their accounts. However, since some seniors are not proficient in technology operations, this feature should be designed to be more user-friendly to minimize operational obstacles.
The issue of food stamp fraud is not limited to the Chinese community. Elderly residents of Bensonhurst Jewish Community Center also suffer from such activities. Michael Rockman, the director of the social services department at the community center, pointed out that while individuals can take certain preventive measures, these methods are no longer sufficient to combat the complex tactics of fraudsters. Because criminal methods have escalated; even locking the card at night and unlocking it only during shopping is not secure enough between shopping and returning home.
He gave an example that some children would lock the card for their parents at night and unlock it only during shopping. However, between shopping and returning home, in just an hour and a half, money is still withdrawn because the card is unlocked. “These events happen almost instantaneously and occur in different locations, sometimes even out of state.”
“Secondly, we must recognize that criminals receive notifications when the card is unlocked. Therefore, digitally, we need to understand who is in the system, how they are informed in real-time about card unlocking and balance information, and swiftly steal funds. Because the withdrawn amounts almost match the available funds, it shows that criminals can receive real-time card status information.” Rockman said it is a complex criminal behavior that requires higher-level digital security solutions, and those responsible for the technical aspects must be able to immediately identify these transactions and prevent them.
Although the government has recently extended the deadline for compensation claims for victims until December 20th, Councilwoman Chong Wenyi emphasized that the government should expedite the improvement of various protective measures to ensure the welfare security of the elderly and low-income groups is not compromised.
Participants unanimously agreed that while community centers and elected officials can enhance awareness through education, the real solution needs to come from a comprehensive response at the city and state government levels. This issue has surpassed local boundaries and requires multi-level preventive mechanisms to safeguard the food stamp usage security of the elderly and community members.