The Maine Department of Health and Human Services is urging federal food assistance recipients in Maine to change the PINs on their EBT cards and check for fraudulent activity.

So far this week, about 300 households that rely on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, have lost $76,000 in benefits in a multistate theft operation. DHHS said Thursday that the thieves appear to be using the electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, cards at point-of-sale terminals in other states.

Maine is one of several states that has been hit by the theft operation targeting SNAP, which is formerly known as food stamps. But DHHS officials warned that the number of affected households could rise as the scale of the operation becomes clearer.

“This incident appears to be the result of large-sca

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