{"id":25050,"date":"2012-08-27T08:26:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T12:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=25050"},"modified":"2012-08-27T08:26:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T12:26:15","slug":"scammers-swindle-social-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2012\/08\/scammers-swindle-social-services","title":{"rendered":"Scammers Swindle Social Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_25051\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-25051\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-25051\" title=\"melanie-griffin\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/melanie-griffin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/melanie-griffin.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/melanie-griffin-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-25051\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Melanie Griffin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Department of Social Services has been hit by a back-to-school scam, with fraudsters pretending to be in need, then selling government vouchers and pocketing cash, Minister of Social Services Melanie Griffin revealed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce the client is known to Social Services, of course it dispenses [assistance] right away without the home inspection and that heavy assessment process because they\u2019re known, and we have their record already,\u201d said Griffin, who appeared as a guest on \u201cDarold Miller Live\u201d on Guardian Radio 96.9 FM.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have put in place a purchase order so the social worker no longer has to go, do a home assessment and then go and purchase the uniforms and the shoes for the client.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Griffin said there are approved vendors who people can take their purchase orders to and buy the uniforms directly, but people have found loopholes in the process. \u201cThey are trying to sell it for cash,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Although she did not detail how many cases of fraud have been perpetrated or the amount of money lost, the minister said up to $110 can be provided per child for primary school students and $135 for high schools students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Social Services has been swindled by a back-to-school scam, with fraudsters pretending to be in need, then selling government vouchers and pocketing cash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[133,31,247,296],"class_list":["post-25050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-community","tag-crime","tag-fraud","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}