‘This crime activity is most frequent at the beginning of the month, after public assistance benefits are loaded to the EBT cards.’

“This past June, Card Verification Value functionality for all EBT cards was recently enabled, which added an additional layer of security to help mitigate EBT theft,” Social Services spokesperson Jason Montiel said in a statement.

The state agency also recently received a $740,000 grant to study ways to reduce fraud, and Gov. Gavin Newsom just included $50 million for EBT theft prevention in his new budget, Montiel said.

According to state data, California counties reimbursed CalWorks beneficiaries almost $30 million between July 2021 and September 2022 — including $4 million in September last year.

Counties returned almost $5 million to food stamp recipients over the same 15-month period, with more than $2 million rebated in August and September of last year.

Montiel said the thefts amount to less than 1% of the $3.2 billion in CalWorks allotments and just 0.04% of $11.2 billion in food assistance over the 15 months.

Multiple criminal inquiries also are underway. “Once investigations have been completed, additional details will be available,” Montiel said.

Victims say when they report the hacks, the phone lines are often clogged with “There absolutely needs to be a minimum standard that ensures these protections while ensuring that clients are able to use these benefits without interruption,” he said.

San Diego County has struggled for years to provide food stamp benefits to eligible residents.

The San Diego UnionTribune reported in 2006 that the region enrolled barely 25% of people who qualify — at the time the lowest enrollment of any large U.S. city.

Under pressure from social service providers and others, the Board of Supervisors directed public health officials to do a better job promoting the program and relax some of the local policies that had contributed to the low enrollment.

The marketing and application changes have boosted the number of people in San Diego now receiving CalFresh benefits.

According to the state Department of Social Services, some 388,000 people in San Diego County were receiving monthly benefits as of November — almost 1 in every 8 residents.

Out of almost 18,000 applications received that month, however, just over 10,000 were approved.