Congress is leaving SNAP cards exposed to a fraud that ordinary bank cards largely solved

ProPublica’s investigation separates two forms of fraud that US political debate routinely conflates. Confirmed intentional violations by SNAP recipients total about $64mn a year, or 0.08% of benefits, in the latest fifty-state federal reports. Electronic theft from recipients was far larger: Propel, whose app lets beneficiaries monitor their accounts, estimates that criminals stole $470mn in 2025 from more than 990,000 households. Private data is necessary because the federal government stopped tracking the crime nationally.

The vulnerability is mundane. Electronic Benefit Transfer cards still rely on magnetic stripes, decades after banks moved credit and debit cards to chips and contactless payment. Criminal groups skim card numbers and PINs, clone the cards, then convert benefits into resalable goods such as baby formula or energy drinks. Victims often discover the theft only when their card is declined at the checkout—and current federal law generally provides no reimbursement.

The obvious technical fix is not speculative. California is close to completing a chip-card transition, and Alabama and Oklahoma have begun rollouts. Congressional staff put the likely national cost near $215mn, compared with more than $600mn in annual theft across SNAP and other benefit programmes. Yet House agriculture leaders blocked funding, reimbursement authority expired, USDA reduced its anti-theft budget request and staff cuts removed specialists developing detection and security guidance.

That leaves the Secret Service inspecting payment terminals store by store: nearly 123,000 terminals, pumps and ATMs over two years produced 637 skimmers, any of which can be replaced the next day. Enforcement can disrupt crews, but it cannot compensate for insecure infrastructure. The policy failure is especially stark because government is demanding more paperwork and fraud controls from recipients and states while declining to modernise the card that actually moves the money.