How grocery stores are combatting SNAP benefit thefts in Ohio

Yahoo

21-03-2025

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — NBC4 Investigates is hearing from people who are being robbed; people using SNAP benefits, once known as food stamps, are logging in to their accounts to find their money is gone.
Now, we are getting a look at the first line of defense: the stores where we all shop. A Columbus market on the north side showed how it keeps customers safe — by using a device that blocks others from tampering with their credit card machines.
These by no means are everywhere and SNAP cards are an easier target because they don't have the microchip technology, which became widely used in 2015. That means millions of dollars are being stolen from those relying on this money to survive.
'It kind of hurt my feelings badly because that's all I had for that week,' SNAP fraud victim Kaiden Bickmeyer said. 'I cried. I mean, I'm struggling and it's not fair to my kids,' SNAP fraud victim Mindy Hurley said.
Those are just two of the victims we spoke with who have experienced snap theft potentially through skimming. A skimmer is a device that steals your card information. It's something that Weiland's market in North Columbus keeps an eye out for.
How security upgrade could help Ohioans who have SNAP benefits stolen
'We have anti-skimming devices at all the pin pads. So what that does when someone puts in their card it then scrambles the information. So if someone does try to come in and skim information from it, there's nothing to get,' Weiland's Market Co-Owner Daniel Phillips said.
He's had them at his store for about a year. 'If I was using SNAP benefits, I would kind of hope and assume that businesses would have implemented it by now,' Phillips said.
NBC4 Investigates checked with other central Ohio grocery stores and gas stations. One told us they check their devices every morning, another said they don't have any protections. 'It used to be a gas station problem. Right? Well, now it's anywhere and everywhere. And these scammers have gotten more and more intelligent,' Ohio Grocers Association CEO Kristin Mullins said.
The Ohio Grocers Association is a lobbying organization that represents mostly independent grocery stores. 'Grocers across the state, probably across the country are doing what they can to protect that,' Mullins said.
Scams to get your card information can look very different; it could be a small device stuck onto a card reader or someone could be using sleight of hand to run your card through another device, before charging it. 'We found over 600 credit cards inside of just one of these two devices,' Whitehall Division of Police Deputy Chief Dan Kelso said.
Whitehall Police caught a man using this skimmer at a gas station. They said he took customers' cards and ran them through this before charging them on the store device. 'We've got a call from a victim who stated, hey, my credit card was used at your target, but it's still in my hand. What's going on?' Kelso said.
Surveillance video and license plate readers helped Whitehall Police track down the suspect, and arrest him, with the devices on him. Deputy Chief Dan Kelso says to keep an eye out for anything that looks like it may have been stuck onto a credit card machine and try not to hand your card over to anyone.
'Give us a call. Let us come check that out right away. I mean, you might be saving a lot of financial heartache to people,' Kelso said. Despite chip-based card technology gaining in popularity a decade ago in the United States, only three states have made progress in updating SNAP cards too.
Now, Ohio might join that list and the upgrade would pay for itself in less than a year. Two state representatives have introduced legislation that would require the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to add chip technology to all Ohio SNAP cards over the next two years.
In Ohio last year, nearly 27,000 people reported their SNAP benefits stolen, almost $14 million dollars of taxpayer money, gone. This bill could stop a majority of those thefts. The Republican representative who co-introduced it calls it a no-brainer.
'We have two paths forward, one independent legislation which we have introduced and then secondarily where we have tried to put it in the budget as a budget amendment. So again, just working with the leadership team in the House and the Senate to get that through,' Rep. Kellie Deeter (R-Norwalk) said.
If this moves forward the state would be investing about five million dollars in this security upgrade. The other half would come from the federal government.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.