GOSHEN – If you have a food stamps SNAP electronic benefits card, you had better check your balance. Hackers are now draining people’s cards without them knowing it.
Sylvia Panetta of the Town of Wallkill bought a few items at the Walmart store and learned she had insufficient funds.
- “The supervisor, in my presence, called the number on the back of the card and was told it was Sayban’s African Market in Texas and figured out the amount that they hacked was $595.50,” she told Mid-Hudson News.
Siramad Pons of Middletown checked her EBT card balance online and found it had only $5.88 when it should have been $918.
“And I said what the hell ad when I called the EBT customer service market, that’s when I was told my card has been used at Sayban’s African Market in Texas,” she said.
Orange County Social Services Commissioner Darcie Miller said as of Tuesday morning, her office received 20 reports from consumers that their EBT cards had been hacked.
“In some cases, the benefit was used in a Cosco in Ohio, it has been used in other locations in Texas. Our consumers have not left the county. They are not the ones using the benefits,” she said.
Miller has contacted the state’s oversight agency seeking guidance on how to proceed and if the state will make those consumers who were ripped off financially whole again.
In the meantime, area law enforcement has been made aware of the hacking situation.
