{
  "id": 14177934,
  "title": "Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It — but Won’t.",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/scammers-are-stealing-millions-from-food-stamp-recipients-congress",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-13T10:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ProPublica",
    "slug": "propublica",
    "url": "https://www.propublica.org/article/food-stamp-snap-benefits-theft-skimmers-fraud"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Jovelle Tamayo/ProPublica. The Red Bull Crew, a criminal syndicate based in Romania, stole $305,274.52 in SNAP benefits in 2022 by purchasing energy drinks and then reselling them online or to smaller stores. This was not an isolated incident; from September to November 2022, the crew used stolen SNAP data to buy energy drinks worth over $300,000 from at least 174 victims across the United States. Despite the Trump administration's claims that SNAP recipients are scamming the system, official statistics show that intentional program violations by SNAP recipients account for only $64 million, or 0.08% of all benefits issued annually. In 2025, however, $470 million was stolen electronically from SNAP beneficiaries, according to data from Propel, a company that provides a mobile app for SNAP recipients to monitor their account balances and transaction histories. Victims of SNAP theft, mostly working individuals or retirees, often learn about the crime when their benefit card is declined at the checkout. Federal law does not allow them to seek refunds for stolen benefits, leaving them to cope with the financial loss. The federal government could easily prevent the vast majority of this fraud by requiring EBT cards to have the same chip technology as credit and debit cards, but has not done so.",
  "summary": "The post Scammers Are Stealing Millions From Food Stamp Recipients. Congress Could Fix It — but Won’t. appeared first on ProPublica .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}