Exclusive: EBT Thefts In The Jewish Community, The Investigation

by CrownHeights.info

Over the last month, tens, if not hundreds of Crown Heights families discovered that their Food Stamp money, provided by the government to help them feed their families, had been stolen. Delving into the the evolving story, CrownHeights.info launched an investigation, and this is what we found.

Going as far back months, a group of organized criminals had begun placing skimmers in Crown Heights grocery stores. The skimmers used in Crown Heights were a sophisticated version of skimmer tools that have been used by scammers and thieves for many years. These sophisticated versions involved a keypad that looks identical, to the detail, to the cover of the payment terminals that are installed in Crown Heights stores. With their thin profile they are almost impossible to detect, unless a knowledgeable person is looking for them. Under their thin demeaner though lies the great danger.

A thin magnetic reader at the mouth of the card slot records the magnetic strip as the victim inserts their card. Small buttons found under the keys of the skimmer record the PIN numbers as they are typed in. Now in possession of your information, a Bluetooth transmitter stands ready to transmit the recorded information, along with hundreds of others, to a person who stops outside the store and uploads it to their computer. And just like that, the thieves now have all your information.

With the help of alert store owners who were notified of the threat, and Crown Heights Shomrim, at least two skimmers were discovered in real time as the scammers were being placed in Crown Heights grocery stores. Since the store owners caught them quickly, no cards were compromised.

So how did the thieves get a hold of all our communities card information? We must conclude that their must have been other skimmers planted, and perhaps removed, for weeks, if not months, before the thefts began. This means that every Crown Heights family should consider their cards, and PINS, as compromised.

Now on the alert, notices were sent to the community warning of the threat and asking for food stamps holders to change their PIN numbers immediately. Some did, others did not, and to this day, daily reports continue filtering in of more EBT thefts.

So once these thieves have your card information, what do they do with it?

There are two ways that these thefts can pan out. One more realistic, and therefore more common, and another which is just conjecture, but may have a role in our communities thefts.

The first way is that the thieves “create” a new EBT card, using blank cards purchased online that are then “programmed” with your card’s information. The thieves then go to a store and make a purchase using your PIN number. After the first purchase they can see how much money is left, and quickly drain the rest of your account. For them it’s free money, or at least whatever they bought with it is free.

Within this first scenario there is also the possibility that the store owners, where the illegal purchases are being made, are themselves the thieves, and in one recent case, the store owners were arrested by the FBI and charged in stealing over $20,000,000 in food stamp benefits.

The second, more difficult and unlikely possibility is that an organized crime ring has created a method to automatically charge the cards using cyber methods, and hiding the purchases by using unsuspecting stores as their front. This, while being conjecture and therefore not having any proof behind it, may explain the phenomenon seen with Crown Heights where victims their accounts drained within a single minute, using three separate transactions recorded from three different locations.

Regardless of the the method of the thefts, they still continue to this day. CrownHeights.info implores the community, even if you have not been a victim of a theft, to IMMEDIATELY change their PIN numbers if they have not already done so, and download the new app provided by New York State that allows you to LOCK your cards until you are ready to use them. This is the only true method of completely stopping these thieves.

It should be noted that many of the people that have had their EBT funds stolen have had it reimbursed by the State, but there is a limit for how many months worth of stolen funds the state is willing to reimburse per year, two months to be exact. If these thefts reoccur or continue, there is not surety that future thefts will be reimbursed.

CrownHeights.info would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Crown Heights store owners who have stepped up to ensure that no new skimmers are placed in their businesses, and to Crown Heights Shomrim who has worked tirelessly in tracking down the people responsible for placing those skimmers.

This rash of EBT thefts is not yet over, and neither is the investigation into them. We implore anyone with knowledge of these thefts to reach out to Crown Heights Shomrim at 718-774-3333 with any useful information. We also ask that any people who have been the victim of these thefts to make a police report in their local police precincts. Without police reports, the police are not able to take action.