Bristol All Fresh Supermarket Customers Targeted by EBT SNAP Scammers

As if getting by wasn’t hard enough for so many low-income families thieves targeted at least one Bristol Borough supermarket by gaining access to Pennsylvania Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, police confirmed.

The theft came to light when EBT cardholders were greeted by an advisory message from All Fresh Supermarket on Pond Street Monday, saying the supermarket was targeted by scammers stealing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits from EBT cards.

All Fresh management said the market was targeted by a “EBT Scam,” and advised SNAP recipients who made purchases using their EBT card to immediately cancel their current benefit card and request a new one.

All Fresh did not say when they discovered the scam scheme, nor how far back scammers started allegedly stealing SNAP benefits from customers or how the scammers gained access to benefit cards with personal pins attached to them.

SNAP benefits are appealing to criminals because Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards are not chip-enabled making them an easy target.

All Fresh management said “multiple locations” were targeted by scammers.

Sources told Lower Bucks Source a skimming device was attached to at least one store card reader.

Bristol Borough Police confirmed there is an active investigation. However, they would not confirm if a skimming device was attached to a check-out reader or that additional stores in the borough were targeted by thieves.

SNAP benefit theft most often occurs through target skimming schemes, in which criminals install illegal devices on ATMs or point-of-sale terminals to capture cardholders’ EBT card information and PINs. The stolen data is then used to create counterfeit cards and drain victims’ accounts.

Each month more than $300 million in food assistance dollars is awarded by the state Department of Human Services (DHS) to eligible enrollees, but millions end up in the hands of criminals who “skim” card numbers to steal benefits.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are now considering House Bill 2540 which would require the state to offer chip-enabled cards to enrollees by January 2028. In the meantime, the state has additionally rolled out an official EBT app that beneficiaries can use to lock their accounts when they aren’t using their card, blocking skimmers from using the information. DHS Secretary Val Arkoosh said users could unlock their cards while waiting in a checkout line to minimize exposure time. ‘

State Inspector General Michelle Henry, who was the Bucks County District Attorney, at a recent policy meeting detailed skimming and commonwealth efforts to deter benefit theft. Henry said the state has a proactive skimmer response team that immediately responds to identified skimmers and educates retailers on how to discover and report such devices.

Credit: YouTube screenshot

No arrests have been made by police as of publication time.