(InvestigateTV) — Billions in taxpayer dollars are disappearing from the accounts of families who need help putting food on the table as fraud has hit an all-time high, according to federal investigators.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the disbursement of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, estimates losses in 2024 totaled more than $12 billion.

Georgia leads the country in stolen funds, where families are left struggling to pay for groceries after their benefits were stolen in minutes.

“It was exactly $1,111 that they took, the full amount within minutes of it being loaded on there,” Lakenya Moore, a SNAP recipient, said.

An investigation uncovered the money was disappearing out of state with apparent connections to stores in Pennsylvania and Florida. But managers at those stores said even though the purchases were listed at their businesses, they don’t accept SNAP cards.

“Sometimes people cried on the phone and it really, really hurt me,” Ghazy Ali, a store manager, said. “I’m sorry, I don’t, I don’t know who’s doing it. But it’s not really the stores.”

Mark Haskins, the USDA’s chief investigator for SNAP benefit fraud, said the issue is much bigger than reported in a rare sit-down interview.

“I wake up every day saying, ‘what are they going to do to us next?’” Haskins said.

The USDA’s data shows states reported about $250 million in stolen benefits last year. But the USDA estimates the real national hit could be much higher.

“It could be as high as $12 billion a year, could be more, we don’t know,” Haskins said.

As part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on SNAP fraud, the USDA joined the U.S. Secret Service to search for skimming machines across the country. They found dozens in metro Atlanta in less than two days during an August operation.

Robert Donovan, deputy special agent in charge of the Atlanta Secret Service office, said advancing technology is making it hard to catch the criminals.

“The global economy has become more digital over the years, kind of exponentially,” Donovan said. “This has actually allowed organized criminal groups to work easily across borders.”

SNAP fraud goes far beyond physical card skimming, Haskins said.

“They don’t sit around and wait for us to catch up with them,” he said. “They’re taking it to the next level every week.”

Criminals are cloning stores’ point-of-sale systems, taking authorized retailer numbers and using criminal third-party processors to create cloned devices.

“They’re taking an FNS number from an authorized retailer, and they’re going to a criminal third-party processor who will take that number, put it into a normal point-of-sale device,” Haskins said. “You’re not authorized in the program. Nobody knows you even exist.”

Most recently, a cyberattack on a call center for SNAP recipients caused the Georgia Department of Human Services to lock cards across the state.

“A criminal can guess a four-digit PIN with a good software program in less than a second,” Haskins said.

The USDA says they’re trying to keep up with limited resources.

“I’ve got about 100 people to cover the entire country,” Haskins said.

The agency is hoping partnerships with businesses and agencies like the Secret Service will help.

“Fraud is big business right now,” Haskins said. “Transnational criminals have really taken over.”

In December 2024, most states stopped reimbursing stolen funds.

To help protect benefits, Georgia officials suggest changing PINs right before funds are set to load and trying to do grocery shopping that day. They also encourage recipients to lock their cards on the Connect EBT app.

Everyone can protect their personal debit and credit cards from skimmers by checking machines for anything suspicious before using them. Experts say people should use tap to pay or pay in cash when possible.

See the full story by Anastassia Olmos here.

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