HOUSTON COUNTY, Ala. (WTVY) – Susan Hammond is one of a growing number of victims.

“I was livid and then I started crying,” Hammond recalled of a recent visit to the store.

Someone stole money from their EBT card, which has happened to countless people.

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is what she and others rely on to feed their families.

“I’m 58, that’s all I get,” noted Hammond, who is also disabled.

She is not the only victim of this scam. There are countless others, including two I spoke with last week.

“Since September, Alabama has seen a significant increase in benefits theft by criminals through various means,” said Daniel Sparkman, deputy chief of staff at the Alabama Department of Human Resources.

What makes this most troubling is that Alabama DHR has no idea how this is happening.

What they do know is that some of the fraud is caused by fraudsters using things like skimmers, a device that steals cardholder information.

“These criminals also use stolen personally identifiable information. So social security numbers and dates of birth. They get into systems where they can actually get card numbers. So it’s not what our customers are doing that allows fraud to happen, it’s just very smart criminals,” Sparkman said.

Susan Hammond knows it’s hard to stop fraud, but the bottom line is that her Thanksgiving meal is at risk.

“Do something so at least these people can have a Thanksgiving dinner. That doesn’t include the people who depend on it to feed their children. It’s heartbreaking. I mean I know we’re poor low-income people, but we still matter,” Hammond said.

Alabama DHR is working around the clock to replace these benefits thanks to a reimbursement waiver from the USDA.

Meanwhile, the State Department plans to introduce security measures to prevent incidents of fraud.

“Alabama DHR began working on a plan for new security features involving our EBT cards earlier this year. We developed the plan in June and presented it to the federal government. They approved the plan last month, in October. This would include chip cards and other background features such as people deactivating their cards and other features to stop some of this fraud. We are trying to implement this as soon as possible.” Sparkman said.

DHR is in the process of contracting with a vendor and expects to implement this safety plan within the next two months.

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