GEORGIA, USA — Since October, our 13WMAZ team received several tips from people claiming they're victims of suspected fraud who say their snap benefits were stolen.
As of Nov. 8, the Department of Human Services informed us "11,662 SNAP households have submitted a skimming/cloning reimbursement claim" since October.
Of those, "DHS has approved 10,173 SNAP skimming/cloning reimbursement claims" since October, according to Director Ellen Brown.
Over a month later, we're learning some people are still having problems reciving their benefits.
13WMAZ showed recipets of the money stolen from the food stamp cards with SNAP credits.
Several records showed up as purchases made in New York.
Most of the people we spoke with in Macon told us they never had problems reciving their benefits until October.
Stephanie Ashe reached out to tell us she filed fraud reports on DFAC's "food loss forms" on Oct. 3.
Since reporting her problem to the state over a month ago, she says they still haven't responded.
M'Shuandri Ralls told us she ran into the same problems.
"I never hear back, I keep calling," Ralls explained. "When you come down to the [Macon] DFACS office all they say is you just got to keep calling, keep calling."
When we followed up with the state about the progress, DHS Director Ellen Brown told us, "clients whose claims are approved can expect to receive their reimbursement within two weeks of submitting the claim."
However, Ashe reached out to 13WMAZ six weeks after filing her initial fraud report to inquire about her account's status.
Brown told us: "We are still working through food loss replacement forms that were submitted during the application period... but are on track to have them completed before the end of the month. We are also exploring other ways to keep our clients apprised of status updates."
The DHS shared tips urging people to protect their benefits:
- 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.
If you live in Georgia and believe you're the victim of a phishing scam involving your public benefits, contact the DHS Inspector General.
You can contact them by emailing inspectorgeneralhotline@dhs.ga.gov or calling 877-423-4746, and hit option 4.