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economist suntribune opinion thursday oct 24 2002 fraud artists pick on local residents if youre a fraud artist i have a sucker for you allow me to introduce you to whitchurchstouffville this municipalitys a sitting duck for the latest in con lines and sleazy tricks a few years ago the ontario provincial police phone busters squad reported a widespread telephone scam operating across the province its victims included people from whitchurchstouffville phone busters issued warnings to residents espe cially the elderly in this fraud victims were called by a charming gentleman and told they were the lucky winner of a major prize such as a car all that was required was to pay the shipping charges in order to transport the vehicle from montreal to toronto mr charm then offers to look after the administrative matters linked to the shipping charges the victims were asked to hand over their credit card number bank account num ber andor debit card num ber of course there was no prize but there was a sur prise the victims bank account was drained while phone busters make some arrests telephone scammers manage to steal millions of dollars the elderly are prime targets theyre vul nerable often lonely and thieves take full advantage about three years ago a stouffville businessman dis guised himself as a financial agent wrapped himself in christianity and walked off with more than 4 million of other peoples money david blows victims included fellow church goers from whit churchstouffville while mr blow did a little time behind bars none of the money was recovered his victims were left bitter sad and perhaps wondering about who sits beside them at church last week whitchurch- stouffville residents sharon and david baxter learned they were victims of debit card skimming york regional polices fraud squad says this new type of fraud is at an epidemic level thieves have found a way to steal personal identifica tion numbers pin and are using them to access bank accounts the bad guys inflate the accounts by making fake deposits then follow up with real withdrawals the baxters joan ransberry call it being robbed by a modem day jesse james more than 100 cases of this fraud have been reported in stouffville and markham the point of compromise is usually gas bars when key ing in your pin number at the gas bar a lap toplike box underneath the counter is downloading the debit card information a new card is made and off the thief goes to make a withdrawal if i buy gas from anywhere other than my usual spot at the corner of ninth line and main street im going to look underneath the counter im not going to be a vic tim of fraud for the second time im a product of the old teaching fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me yes ive been a victim of fraud six years ago i bought a threemonth membership at a fitness centre at success plaza in stouffville i was into my fourth week when the owner called to say she had a selloff made up of a oneyear membership package for 200 it was a bar gain i visited her immediate ly and gave her a cheque the next morning i arrived at the centre for my onehour workout only to find a note stating the centre was closed for the day due to a family emergency the same note was at the fitness centre the next day i assumed it was a death of a close family member three days later still no sign of any one an alarm bell rang i started to snoop yes my cheque had been cashed i learned the business was belly up and the owner had been evicted just before she split she hit on her mem bers with the selloff package i have no idea how an eld erly person feels when robbed of his or her life savings i only lost 200 still if i ever see that woman im going to sneak up on her and give her a boot in the derriere wwwwobttsiti 101 190sfcom jl haunted barn now open thurs fri 49 pm weekends 10 am 9 pm open till halloween 7325 reesor rd markham 3km south of hwy 7 grapefruits apple pes it has been a long summer if youre a grapefruit lover they havent been that good until now these are new crop size 32 which are big juicy and ready to get you started on a new season of citrus from the bahamas each its the last call for great fall raspberries these are driscolp brand the best nice and plump and delicious theyre usually a sharp price for a week maybe two in the fall then theyre gone till next spring so if you want great raspberries get in and grab some at a great price from california em p halloween stuff well have some pretty scary stuff available from our bakery from now till halloween it will include extrascary cupcakes really pretty decorated ginger or sugar cookies and white or chocolate cakes in various sizes with frightening halloween decorations at our bakery counter well have a couple of features one is our homemade apple pies both in pastry and streusel top crumble in both the large and smaller individual size we use a variety of apples including spys and courtlands to make these we have a delicate hand with the seasoning and we have a big appetite thats why we make the bigger ones in a 9 size you dont want to run out part way through made totally from scratch reg 895 each this week cauliflower eat up your veggies folks and this week its cauliflower we have really nice and large sno- white cauli for your dinner this week product of ontario each whats for dinner weve taken what seemed like a mountain of pork tenderloins seasoned and roasted them and served them up in a variety of sauces the first is porcini mushroom sauce the second a sundried tomato sauce the third is with domestic porta bella mushrooms and the last is with a mild green peppercorn sauce just heat v p and serve w jgj serves 2 3 jr fp i 01 reg 1495 fljk 5 you could win our huge pumpkin but thats not all as weve done for a number of years we have a huge pumpkin in front of our store if you are under 12 and guess the weight or are the closest you could win it well deliver it and pick it up later if you wish but thats not all this year if you wish it can be expertly carved for you by none other than farmer frank from whittamores farm an expert carver of scary pumpkins and even thats not all we have a few other large pumpkins and two runner- up guesses will get one too and all three winners will get a village grocer loot bag to make sure that youve got enough treats for halloween so place your guesses at the cashier desk at the front of the store the big one is between 750 and 850 lb this week our deli roast pork our stuffed roasted pork is on sale this week at the deli it will be available warm bythechunk at dinner time or available cool by the slice all the time its our great roast pork stuffed with our sage onion stuffing seasoned and slowroasted m f ye at the deli i i jljek reg 199 100 g jljvvk just arrived weve just received a shipment of some usda prime filets and rib eyes theyll be available at the meat counter and at the village chop house on main street for dinner you may need a reservation so phone early 9054800094 coming next week well have our holly plants in both male and female which are looking really good well have a corned beef sale and well be receiving the begin nings of a great selection of fall winter outside decorations and our annual knife sale what about waxers game my friend don bremner who owns the markham waxers brought me a few tickets to pass out to the friday evenmg game its the 100th year of junior level hockey in markham and until we get an nhl franchise its the most exciting hockey going so grab your kids and a couple tickets from us and get out to the game its great fun onion soupi most of you know that we supply some of our frozen products to other stores far and wide actually when prospective or regular customers come for a tour of our markham kitchen they pass the supply storage shelves and invariably they notice the cases of gumness beer most say boy id like to work here but i tell them that its one of the key ingredients in our onion soup the other ingredients are great onions made from scratch beef stock and a delicate hand with seasoning its a great soup poz reg 549 hoe serves 3 4 b this week a0e imsii quality foods specials in effect until closing sunday october 27 hours mon 1100700 tuesthurs 900700 fri 900800 sat 900600 sun 1000500 548 carlton road unionville 9401770