JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – With an increase in reports of SNAP benefits fraud, the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS) urges Mississippi residents to take steps to protect their benefits.

The MDHS Office of Inspector General reported there has been an increase in reports of stolen SNAP benefits in the Jackson-metro and surrounding areas near the state line over the past few weeks. Officials said that if your SNAP benefits are stolen, the department is no longer allowed to replace them.

With the increase in SNAP theft, MDHS officials said it is important to change your PIN after each use, providing an instructional video to explain how to change it.

Along with changing your PIN, MDHS provided the following tips to keep you safe from fraud:

• Change your PIN the night before your benefits are loaded each month.
• Avoid using PINs that are easy to guess, such as 1234 or sequences of the same digit like 0000 or 1111. While these may be convenient for you to remember, they also make it simple for thieves to access your account and steal your funds.
• Keep your PIN secret. Do not share your PIN with anyone outside your household. Cover the keypad when you enter your PIN on a machine.
• Check your EBT account regularly for unauthorized charges. If your EBT card has been compromised, call the Mississippi EBT card holder service center at 1-866-512-5087 as soon as possible to report the card as compromised. This will deactivate the card and send a new card to the account holder.
• Check card reading machines to make sure there’s nothing suspicious overlayed or attached to the card swiper or keypad.

said Officials say it could take mere minutes to gain access to your card number and PIN and send it to anywhere in the country where it can be immediately used online.

To combat this, MDHS officials said they are working with their vendor to enhance security solutions to protect their client’s benefits, along with their work with local and state law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute the criminals that commit SNAP theft.

MDHS urgeD anyone to report cases of stolen SNAP benefits to the Office of Inspector General fraud hotline at 1-800-299-6905.