TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Back in May, Latice Tyler told us about her ill-fated attempt to buy a pizza with her SNAP card.
“I buy the pizza, my total was $25,” she said.
Or so she thought, because somehow in the few seconds that her card was unlocked, thieves were able to hack her account and steal $400.
“So I’m out of food stamps until next month and hopefully it doesn’t happen again,” she said.
Unfortunately Latice is far from alone in being a victim of SNAP theft.
“I was trying to buy groceries for the night and set up a Walmart order,” said Diane Trude.
Earlier this month Diane locked her card and went to bed, and when she woke up…
“When I got up in the morning it said that it had been unlocked and it was fully cleaned out of all of my funds. All $768 dollars,” she said.
And that was the second time this year it happened to her. Back in March she lost $450.
“It’s been a big impact to my life,” she said.
For both Latice and Diane, the transactions that stole their funds occurred in Pennsylvania.
“We looked up all the businesses, they were all located in Pennsylvania. None of them were actually physical locations, they were empty warehouses,” said Trude.
“One was from Philadelphia and a second one says Elizabeth or something like that,” said Tyler.
News Channel 8 asked the DHS if there were any plans in place to simply eliminate the out of state feature since that’s how many of these thefts appear to be taking place? They responded, “We are always exploring innovative security features to safeguard Oklahoman’s SNAP benefits.”
“They just keep saying well, we’re going to do what we can but you know, it’s nothing,” said Trude.
Frustration and exasperation, as theft victims plead for action in an ongoing crisis with no end in sight.
“I just want them to, I guess, do some more research or figure out how to stop this,” said Tyler.
“It feels like nobody’s doing anything and there’s no recourse about it. And it seems like the fraud has exploded,” said Trude.
