SAVANNAH, Ga. () — A Savannah woman said fraudulent charges of over $1,600 were taken from her SNAP EBT card.

“I have the card in my hand, in my wallet, and all of a sudden all these charges showed up within seconds of each other all over the state of New York.”

She visited the local Georgia Department of Human Services Branch in September after finding two weeks worth of unfamiliar charges to her account.

“I gave them all the charges, showed them everything, and they said it’s going to have to go to Atlanta. I said, ‘will it get reimbursed?’ They said, ‘oh yeah, you’ll get everything back.'”

She didn’t get everything back. She found out today from the DHS office in Atlanta she’ll only be refunded around $340, a quarter of what she says was stolen.

DHS didn’t give her a reason for the decision, after she waited for seven months.

“I jumped through hoops, waited for hours and hours in the DFCS office, to just be told, um, well, uh, er, you don’t get an answer.”

The bulk of the charges came from delis and grocery stores around New York City.

“They asked me, ‘did you contact those delis?’ No, I didn’t contact those delis. they are not going to claim fraud because they got paid. everybody got paid, and it’s just your tough luck they’re only going to replace a quarter of what was scammed within seconds.

She was left not only frustrated, but confused and wanting a better explanation and refund.

“I hope this story will encourage other people who were ripped off to contact and let them know their situation, because it hasn’t been resolved.”

contacted the DHS for comment, and they replied with the following statement:

In December 2022, Congress passed a law to protect and replace SNAP benefits stolen via card skimming, card cloning, and other similar fraud. The law stipulated the replacement period of such benefits that were stolen to be between Oct. 1, 2022, and Sept. 30, 2024. The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 revised the end date of the benefit theft period from Sept. 30, 2024, to Dec. 20, 2024. The American Relief Act, 2025 did not extend this authority for benefits stolen beyond Dec. 20, 2024. This was a federally instituted and funded program that the previous Congress opted to no longer fund, making SNAP benefits stolen on or after Dec. 21, 2024, ineligible for replacement. Note: The calculation for reimbursement was determined by the federal government – states did not determine the amount to be reimbursed and merely followed federal guidance.

Although the federal reimbursement of stolen SNAP funds has ended, we continue to remind customers who think they’ve been the victim of card skimming, card cloning, or other similar fraud involving their public benefits to change their PIN and lock or replace their card immediately and then report the incident to the DHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) at inspectorgeneralhotline@dhs.ga.gov or 877-423-4746, option 6.  Our OIG team continues to review and investigate these claims in coordination with partners in law enforcement.

— DHS Spokesperson