Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It — but Won’t. by Eli Hager October 13, 2026, 6:00 am

Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It — but Won’t. by Eli Hager October 13, 2026, 6:00 am https://www.propublica.org/article/food-stamp-snap-benefits-theft-skimmers-fraud?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary $470 Million How much fraudsters stole last year from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries. That’s according to data supplied by Propel, a company that provides a mobile app for SNAP recipients to check their account balances and transaction histories. More than 990,000 households that received food assistance last year had benefits stolen. (The reason it’s necessary to use data from a private company: The federal government has stopped tracking rates of this crime.) On Oct. 13, we reported that most SNAP theft could be blocked by adding microchips to outdated magnetic-stripe cards — but Congress won’t fund the change. A week later, the Department of Agriculture announced plans to adopt more secure cards with microchips. https://www.propublica.org/article/snap-theft-chip-cards-trump-rule?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary