If a skimmer drains your food stamps today, you do not get the money back. Not from the state, not from Washington, not from anyone. The federal program that used to replace stolen SNAP benefits stopped taking claims at the end of September 2025, and it only ever covered thefts that happened before December 21, 2024, according to City Limits. The thieves are still working. The safety net behind the safety net is gone.

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso held a rally on June 4 on the steps of Borough Hall, joined by twenty social service organizations from across the borough. “Food is being stolen directly from families and working New Yorkers, and Brooklyn is at the heart of this crisis,” Reynoso said, per Brooklyn Paper. He is demanding a new city Office of SNAP Fraud, a state-funded program to pay victims back, and a faster switch off the magnetic-stripe EBT cards that thieves crack wide open.

This is personal for Reynoso. “Growing up, my family relied on SNAP, it was often the difference between having food on the table or going to bed hungry,” he said at the press conference, per BKReader. “We cannot sit by idly while scammers prey on our neighbors and steal from the New Yorkers who need these benefits the most.”