Jane Edwards
Fraudsters are using card skimming devices to steal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from low-income Americans across the U.S., including Texas, and Haywood Talcove, CEO, Government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions and LexisNexis Special Services, said the Department of Agriculture should initiate steps to protect recipients from skimming theft.
Talcove, a three-time Wash100 awardee, pointed out some fundamental flaws USDA should address to protect the holders of Lone Star Cards or electronic benefits transfer cards that recipients use to purchase food.
“The first thing is they should not be using the cards they’re using. They should be chip enabled. You could just tap them on the machine and there’d be no exchange of information and it would be encrypted and you couldn’t steal the pin,” Talcove said.
“The second thing is, in an effort to help people to make it easier, you’re allowed to have as many cards from as many different people as you can carry. There’s no limit,” he added.
Talcove said having no limit on such benefit cards could make it difficult for the agency to identify criminals.
In 2022, the Florida Department of Children and Families deployed a security control system from LexisNexis Special Services to protect the state’s Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from being exploited by overseas scammers.
