Queens officials tout new EBT cards to prevent SNAP benefit theft
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From left to right, Queens Rep. Grace Meng, Assemblymember Nily Rozic, State Senator John Liu and Executive Director of Flushing BID Dian Yu announce the rollout of a new anti-fraud SNAP initiative. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson
By Noah Powelson
New York ranks number one in the nation for food stamp fraud, but a new security initiative coming next year aims to cut back on the tens of millions of dollars in government benefits stolen each year, Queens officials said on Thursday.
Starting in 2027, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance will begin rolling out new benefits cards for New Yorkers enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The new cards come with chip-and-tap-enabled technology, a security feature that Queens lawmakers say will prevent scammers and hackers from electronically stealing SNAP benefits.
The most common way fraudsters steal benefits is through “skimming,” a practice in which devices at grocery checkout terminals capture card numbers and PINs, which scammers later use to siphon funds from the card.
Most debit and credit card companies have already adopted chip-and-tap technology, but the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards that the SNAP program uses still rely on much more vulnerable swipe technology.
In 2024, over $54 million in benefits were reported stolen from SNAP users, though the actual total of stolen benefits is likely much higher.
But with over 2 million new chip-enabled EBT cards coming next year, Queens lawmakers said New York should see a massive reduction in benefit theft.
Queens State Senator John Liu said the upgrade was long overdue and should have been implemented over a decade ago. If it had, it could have prevented the theft of tens of millions of dollars largely used by New York’s elderly, immigrant and youth populations.
“For years, New York has relied on an outdated EBT system that made it far too easy for scammers to take advantage of hard-working New Yorkers,” Liu said. “As scammers and their skimming devices got more sophisticated, thousands of SNAP recipients continued to get ripped off, and so we relentlessly pushed the state to upgrade its EBT cards with the same safety measures found in credit and debit cards.”
To comply with the change, every supermarket, convenience store, bodega or any other grocer that accepts SNAP benefits will be required to update its point-of-sale devices to accept the new EBT cards by Dec. 1. There won’t be penalties for stores that haven’t upgraded by the deadline, but their current devices will not be able to accept SNAP payments once the new cards are issued.
According to Queens Assemblymember Nily Rozic, there were over 85,000 reported cases of SNAP benefits being skimmed from recipients in 2024 across the state.
The lawmaker previously worked with Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz to prosecute those responsible for SNAP fraud.
“Around 2022, we started hearing from seniors in particular about how their EBT and SNAP benefits have been skimmed or electronically taken away from them,” Rozic said. “Tens of thousands of dollars swiped away from hundreds and thousands of families across Queens. We raised awareness for our seniors for those vulnerable cases, and certainly with the help of DA Katz, we have been prosecuting those who have been scamming across Queens.”
But even when fraud is reported, it’s unlikely the lost funds will be returned to the recipients. In 2023, federal funding was allocated to reimburse victims of SNAP fraud, but that funding expired in 2025.
Queens Rep. Grace Meng introduced a bill last year to make the federal reimbursements permanent, but it has yet to progress through the House. Meng, who represents parts of Flushing, encouraged retailers to make the switch to tap-enabled devices to prevent service or business disruption ahead of the holidays.
“It's really crucial that we have a smooth transition to make sure that our SNAP recipients do not experience any gap in benefits, and that our small businesses don't lose out on sales, as well,” Meng said.
SNAP and other government safety net programs saw enormous cuts in President Donald Trump’s federal spending bill passed last year, and Queens residents were hit particularly hard.
SNAP funding was reduced by roughly $45 million in New York State and roughly $21 million in New York City, resulting in thousands of recipients immediately being cut out from the program.
In Queens, SNAP recipients decreased by about 25,000 people from June 2025 to June 2026, a roughly seven percent reduction.
