LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For people who are a part of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, you can imagine that money is already tight.
Now, scammers have been making things a lot more complicated for SNAP recipients across Arkansas.
Thanks to a new federal law, Arkansans receiving food assistance through SNAP who had their benefits stolen, can now request to have that money added back into their accounts.
They can do so because of a new, temporary program that the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) said could help hundreds of people.
"We want to do the outreach, and feel like the outreach is important, because there may be people who didn't report it, because, outside of this legislation, the federal law prohibited us from replacing the benefits," said Mary Franklin, the Director of DHS Division of County Operations.
Now people with stolen benefits can ask to be reimbursed if the theft happened between October 2022 and the end of September 2024.
Franklin explained how during that time frame there were nearly 300 thefts reported.
"Their family is victimized by not having access to those benefits because they were stolen. So we're very glad to be able to be participating in this effort to try and replace those benefits," Franklin said.
Franklin explained how the scam is electronic fraud and involves skimming and cloning.
"Skimming is when someone puts a device over a point of sale machine where someone would put their card in order to make a purchase, and then that device steals the information off the card," Franklin added.
Cloning is when someone has stolen information from someone's EBT account and can use a copy of the card to access the benefits.
"We don't want anyone to be a victim of a crime," she added.
That's why she recommends not sharing your pin number, and not choosing a repetitive, easy-to-guess pin.
"It's also a good idea to check your balance on your account, look at the transactions, make sure you don't see anything suspicious, and if you do see something suspicious, change your PIN number immediately to protect the balance that's on your card," she said.
If you've been impacted, DHS said you should report the theft no later than November 27, 2024.
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