{
  "id": 8783589,
  "title": "Scammers Turn to Outdated Payment Tech to Steal Benefits",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/20/scammers-turn-to-outdated-payment-tech-to-steal-benefits",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-20T22:22:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PYMNTS",
    "slug": "pymnts",
    "url": "https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2026/scammers-turn-to-outdated-payment-tech-to-steal-benefits/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Scammers are exploiting outdated payment systems to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. welfare system, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. The operation, believed to be orchestrated by Romanian organized crime groups, relies on magnetic stripe-based payment technology found on most low-income Americans' debit cards used for electronic benefit transfer (EBT). These criminals employ \"builders\" to install skimming devices that fraudulently steal benefits from unsuspecting customers using government-issued debit cards at stores. The stolen funds are then used for luxury purchases or transferred back to Romania as cryptocurrency. Authorities have expressed concern over the expansion of these tactics, which now include bot-based account number guessing and phony transactions via cloned credit card machines. Michael Peck, head of the Secret Service's Global Investigative Operations Center, noted that the use of magnetic strip technology, invented in the 1960s, is contributing to the ease with which these scammers operate. Despite the White House's efforts to combat public benefits fraud, the trend appears to be on the rise, with many card issuers citing fraud as a growing cost factor. PYMNTS Intelligence research suggests that fraud has transitioned from a back-office issue to a critical aspect of an issuer's growth strategy. As a result, top issuers are accelerating their scam-prevention efforts, with 45% of high-value issuers planning to invest in scam detection and prevention in the next year.",
  "summary": "Decades-old payment technology is reportedly helping scammers steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the welfare system. It’s part of an operation led by Romanian organized crime groups in the U.S., who rely on magnetic stripe-based payment systems to carry out their thefts, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday (Sept. 20). According to the […] The post Scammers Turn to Outdated…",
  "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."
}