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Early in July, two young workers in the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) told their supervisor, an employee of a Bronx nonprofit, that strangers had approached them on the street offering goods or cash in exchange for a debit card issued by SYEP.

“In one instance it was, ‘Hey, I can get you a new phone and new shoes and a new watch if you give me your SYEP card,’” the employee said. The other participant, he said, was offered money —

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