NYC EBT skimming sweep nets 35 devices, flags $36.5 million in prevented fraud
A three-day Secret Service operation across Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens in June removed 35 illegal skimming devices from bodega checkout terminals and prevented an estimated $36.5 million in Electronic Benefits Transfer fraud, the agency's fourth anti-skimming sweep in New York City this year. The operation puts a street-level figure on a national problem: EBT card theft costs consumers and financial institutions more than $1 billion annually.
A three-day Secret Service operation across Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens in June removed 35 illegal skimming devices from bodega checkout terminals and prevented an estimated $36.5 million in Electronic Benefits Transfer fraud, the agency's fourth anti-skimming sweep in New York City this year. The operation puts a street-level figure on a national problem: EBT card theft costs consumers and financial institutions more than $1 billion annually.
How the skimming network operates
Hidden devices attached to checkout payment terminals capture EBT card data while pinhole cameras or keypad overlays record customer PINs, according to the FBI. Criminals encode the stolen data onto counterfeit cards and drain Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program balances, often before recipients notice.
Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government, joined the Secret Service on the New York operation and described storefronts stocked with canned tuna expired three years ago, pancake syrup two years past date, and sardines that were expired. His read was blunt: many of those locations exist to process stolen card data, not move groceries. "A large percentage of these convenience stores are actually EBT ATMs," he told Fox News Digital. "Their sole purpose is to traffic cards, not sell food."
Michael Peck, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Criminal Investigative Division, told The City Reporter in June that criminals have packed as much as $1.2 million in stolen cash into dishwashers for overseas shipment. Runners who physically install the skimming devices earn roughly $150 each. Organized crime groups behind the schemes, many originating in Eastern Europe, have reportedly been renting $10,000-a-month apartments and Lamborghinis on the proceeds.
Structural gaps in the SNAP program
Talcove identified three conditions that allow the fraud to persist: weak identity verification, outdated magnetic-stripe card technology, and a SNAP program that does not require itemized purchase records. The absence of transaction-level detail makes it harder for administrators to flag suspicious activity at authorized stores.
The problem extends beyond storefronts. Talcove described a location on the West Coast that presents as a food retailer but operates as a strip club accepting EBT, and a separate site that is actually a laundromat. More than 250,000 retailers nationwide hold authorization to accept SNAP benefits, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Talcove said removing suspicious stores from that authorized list, paired with card technology upgrades and stronger identity checks, would cut into the annual loss figure. He said the real cost lands on families whose monthly benefits disappear before reaching a checkout line with actual food.
What to watch
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced this month that the state will begin replacing current magnetic-stripe EBT cards with chip-enabled cards in early 2027. That replacement cycle is the next concrete milestone for a fraud ecosystem Talcove said has become entrenched across five years of federal investigations.
Related reading
Filed by the newsroom of MarketPR on July 28, 2026. Source: foxnews.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.