Brian Laird on WNYC.

There's a big scam coming more into view

that has apparently ripped off tens of thousands

of New Yorkers just in the last six months

to the tune of around $20 million just in the instances that have been reported

to the New York City Department of Social Services.

It's a scam that drains the value from your EBT cards, electronic benefit transfer cards used for

SNAP benefits, food stamps, for those who don't know what it is, as you check out at the

Grocery store. WNYC and Gothamist reporter, Bahar, Oster Dunn,

is covering this and joins us now with what we know

and hopefully how to protect yourself

and get the government to more effectively protect everybody.

We will also hear in a few minutes in this segment from a member of the state legislature who's working on a solution.

Hi, Bahar, thanks for coming on the show.

Hi Brian, thanks for having me.

So how does this work?

Someone is at checkout with a food purchase and an EBT card and then what?

So pretty much you go to the grocery store, you ring up all your items, and the cashier will tell you that your card is denied,

that your balance is zero dollars, even though you might have checked your balance that morning

and seen your full $291 or whatever it is for the month.

At that point, there's nothing really you can do in the moment.

You have to essentially go online or call the city

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