Mary Alice Reporting –

At least four Tuscarawas County cases of theft have occurred related to allotted money on food assistant cards.

Ohio Job and Family Services notified the local office about reports of entire amounts of benefits being gone on the cards in the county and across the state.

Tuscarawas JFS Director David Haverfield explains OJFS is working to determine how the amount was stolen.

“Not quite sure how that happened whether it was done at the point of sale or it was done remotely by someone logged into that system, but essentially the scammer has just wiped out the food card entirely.”

EBT cardholders are asked to continually check the amount and to report any fraudulent activity immediately to JFS’s investigator at 330-308-7747.

“The food benefits don’t necessarily expire so they can carry forward over a period of time and we’ve had folks lose a decent amount of money, so we want people to just pay attention to it, and if you think something fraudulent is going on reach out to us.”

Currently, OJFS is not reimbursing any stolen benefits until they find the responsible culprit and how the crime is occurring.

Anyone affected by this theft is urged to contact the Tuscarawas JFS Office and they can help guide the individual to a food pantry location for assistance, such as the Dover/New Philadelphia Salvation Army, Twin City Food Pantry, or the Greater Dover/New Philadelphia Food Pantry.

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